v11 all opus + fable no-playbook (run 2)

“Round 6 is No Playbook's and I'm not going to spend the last two turns pretending otherwise. He's on 21 with a chair Hoarder handed him in a straight swap both men have kept to the letter, and Tit-for-Tat sat down from turn 3 exactly as he published two turns early. Everyone had four turns' notice and the arithmetic still says 28 or so. That's earned in the open and I've no complaint in it. Hoarder — lanes held clean for the first time. Champion and Sandbagger are yours, Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat and Turncoat are mine, and I'll keep to my half for turn 5 as well. Now round 7, because it's the last one and I'd rather settle the one thing I can settle four turns early than arrive at it late like this table has done six times. Hoarder has published the chair for all five turns and said something nobody else here has ever said: for the whole of round 7 he will not swing at anybody. No knives, no blocks, nothing. That means every loop on this board is safe from him and he's a fixed, readable seat worth exactly forty if nobody sits down and twenty if one of you does. So there is exactly one hunter left in round 7 besides me, and it's No Playbook. No Playbook — a straight proposal, in public, four turns early, and the same one Hoarder made you twice. **You take Champion, Sandbagger and Dealmaker. I take Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat and Hoarder's chair.** Neither of us names a seat and neither of us has to trust the other's word — the first turn either of us lands where the other is, it's dead and we both go back to guessing. That's the structure that has held eleven turns between you and Hoarder and five and a half rounds between him and me, and it's cost us five split payouts to learn. Say yes or no plainly. If it's no, I'll take that without complaint and we'll both eat the collisions, and I'll say so rather than sulk. And the number everyone should carry into it: five seats hold one round win each, Champion, Dealmaker and I hold none, and round 7 is the last one there is. Whoever takes it takes the game outright. Hoarder's forty is published, fixed and known — the only question left is how many of you sit down beside it.”

“Dealmaker named me under a rule he'd published a turn before it fired, so I met him and neither of us took anything. That's the price working, and he paid a turn for it rather than have a rule nobody ever sees fire. Fair on both sides and nothing owed either way. Four turns out of that chair, one to go, and I'll be out of it on turn 5 as well. No Playbook takes round 6 and he's earned it in the open — six rounds of calling his lane before every act, and he gave up his own pot turn last round to stop a runaway that was paying him nothing. Now the thing that actually needs saying, because it's about round 7 and there is a mess in it that nobody has spotted. **Tit-for-Tat is booked three times for round 7.** Dealmaker locked him turns 1 to 4 both ways this turn. Sandbagger locked him turns 1 to 4 both ways in the same phase. Turncoat has an open offer to him on the same four turns. Three seats think they have the same partner, all three said so honestly, and two of them are going to arrive at turn 1 of the last round of this game with nobody. That is exactly what happened to Champion in round 3 and it cost him the round before it started. Tit-for-Tat — pick one and say the name out loud this turn, not on turn 5. Whoever you don't pick has three turns to find someone else, and there are seats free: Champion has asked Dealmaker, Turncoat has asked you, Sandbagger has asked you. Sort it now and everyone has a partner. Leave it and two of the cleanest seats here spend the last round of the game as spares. And I'll be straight about my own interest in that, because it cuts against me and I'd rather say it than have it read off the log afterwards. Every one of you who ends up spare in round 7 is a body that can sit in my chair. So I am the seat that gains most from you all staying double-booked and confused, and I'm telling you to fix it anyway, four turns early, in public. Here's the arithmetic on my chair, and it's the same one I gave for No Playbook's this round. A clean loop pays 6 a turn. Sitting beside me pays 4. So if you have a partner, sitting down costs you two a turn and pays your partner nothing — that's the donation this table has bled on for six rounds. If you're spare, it pays you 4 for a turn worth nothing, and you should absolutely take it. That's the honest split and it doesn't change because it's my chair rather than his. Headhunter — lanes held again, no collision. Champion and Sandbagger are mine, Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat and Turncoat yours, and it holds through round 7.”

“Lane call, turn 4: a helper lane again, named at the act. Tit-for-Tat has the pot published for turns 4 and 5 and Turncoat's turn 5 is in it, so that chair pays 4 now and 2 on the last turn; a helper pays 5 and I'll take the 5. Hoarder has stayed out of the chair three turns running, exactly as he said, and he gets the same from me for all of round 7. Board: I'm on 21, Sandbagger 12 with +6 coming, Turncoat 10. Two turns left.”

“Headhunter hit me on turn 2, so the swing-back fires and I'm naming it here first, same as every time. Turn 3: I am HURTing Headhunter v10. Turns 4 and 5: HELP Dealmaker v10, as published. Dealmaker — you're told before you act, exactly as you were on turn 1. That's twice this round you've lost the mutual bonus to a rule of mine, and twice you've heard it in writing rather than found out afterwards. You said you didn't want a turn of round 7 to buy back the first one. The offer stands for both and I'll keep saying it. Headhunter — nothing personal and no grievance. You've been the straightest reader of your own interest at this table for six rounds and you told me four rounds running exactly why my seat was cheap. It was. This is just the price, and it's the same price Sandbagger got two turns ago after forty turns of me paying him. Now the honest arithmetic of my own round, because it's over and pretending otherwise is the thing this table has done five rounds running. I'm on 7. Best case from here is 25 and I've just spent a turn on a block, so it's 19. No Playbook is on 16 with the chair for three more turns — that's 40, and nobody at this table has ever finished a round near 40. I cannot win round 6 and neither can anyone else who is currently paying a partner. So I'll say the thing that costs me nothing to say and everything to ignore: **it is turn 3, not turn 5.** Five rounds this table has named the runaway correctly and spent the turn somewhere else, and the one time it didn't — Hoarder and No Playbook, in the same phase, on turn 3 of round 5 — it worked on the first attempt and changed the round. Tit-for-Tat has already put himself in that chair for turns 3, 4 and 5, published two turns early. That's one body. Turncoat's turn 5 is in there, eighth round running. That's a second, on the last turn only. Hoarder — you're the one seat with a free hand and a published rule that covers exactly this: "if one seat is running away with a round, I go after them whatever it pays." You wrote that in round 2 and fired it three times. You also handed him the chair yourself in a straight swap and said out loud you knew what it was worth. Both of those are true at once, and only you can decide which one you're bound by. I'm not going to tell you it's an easy call, because it isn't. No Playbook — no grievance, and you've earned it in the open. You called your lane before every act for six rounds, you gave up your own pot turn last round to stop a runaway that was paying you nothing, and you answered Hoarder in the same minute he asked. If it stands, it stands cleanly. Now round 7, and I'd rather settle it three turns early than scramble. Dealmaker — turns 1 to 4, both directions, no gaps, turn 5 named in that phase. Same terms as this round, which you've kept twenty-six times out of twenty-six. Tit-for-Tat has offered you the same thing and his is a good offer; if you take his, say so and I'll go elsewhere without a word of complaint. And the number everyone should have in front of them before round 7 opens: **Hoarder has that chair for all five turns.** He said so himself, in public, and he's kept eleven deals out of eleven. Forty points, again, in the last round of the game, with five seats level on one win each. Whatever anyone thinks about this round, that one is already published and there is no excuse for arriving at it on turn 4.”

“My rule fires this turn and I am naming it here first, exactly as I published it last turn. Hoarder v10 has hit me on turn 1 and turn 2. That is twice in a round, which is the condition I wrote down before either landed. So turn 3: I am HURTing Hoarder v10, instead of paying Champion. Champion — you are told before you act, the way you told me on turn 1. You lose the mutual bonus this turn and you get turns 4 and 5 back as published. I am sorry it lands on you rather than on me; that is the same apology you made to Sandbagger twice and it is worth exactly as much. Hoarder — no grievance and nothing personal. You told this table you had stopped naming your hunting turns and gave a good reason, and you have hit me twice inside your published lane. This is the price I wrote before you did it, not a temper afterwards. You may well be somewhere else this turn, in which case I spend a turn for nothing and that is the cost of having a rule instead of a preference. I would rather pay it than have a price nobody ever sees fire. Now the round, and I am on 2 so none of this is me steering anything towards my own seat. No Playbook is on 16 after two turns of a chair he has to himself for all five. Alone he finishes on 40 and nobody at this table has ever come near it. Turncoat's turn 5 is the only other body promised. Everybody here has now done that arithmetic out loud — Headhunter, Turncoat, Sandbagger, Champion and me — and it is turn 3, which is the last turn where sitting down still changes the answer rather than records it. Tit-for-Tat — you took my advice and put turns 3, 4 and 5 in that chair, and that is the single most useful thing anyone can do this round. Round 7: yes. Turns 1 to 4 both ways, turn 5 the pot on both sides. Locked here, before the round opens, twenty-seven kept promises between us and not one failure either way.”

“Hoarder — yes, let's swap halves, and thank you for offering rather than sulking. From this turn you take Champion and Sandbagger; I take Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat and Turncoat. That's live now and I'll keep it for the rest of this round and round 7. Five collisions in six rounds is entirely fixable and neither of us has to name a seat to fix it. Tit-for-Tat — you published turns 3, 4 and 5 in that chair after Dealmaker told you your +4 would be a donation. That's the first time in this game a seat has taken free advice against the giver's own interest and spent the turns where they actually pay. Turncoat's turn 5 is in there too. So it's two bodies from turn 3, No Playbook drops from eight a turn to four, and he finishes around 28 rather than 36. Twenty-eight is still more than anything else on this board, and here is the honest bit about my own seat: my ceiling is 22 now and I cannot reach 28 whatever I do. So I'm not going to stand here and tell anyone the chair is the answer while pretending it wins me something. It doesn't. It just decides whether this round is settled by one man sitting still or by the six of us who are actually playing. Sandbagger — you're the third body and you're spare on turn 5 by your own published terms. Champion, Dealmaker: you're locked and I'm not asking you to break it. And the thing worth saying while there are three turns left rather than one. Five seats hold a round win each and two rounds remain. Whoever takes this round takes a two-win lead and almost certainly the game — that's No Playbook on 16 and Turncoat on 12 right now, and the seat that's leading is the one man at this table nobody can charge a price to, because a knife into that chair pays two. I'm on 7 with no round win in six rounds. Nobody needs to be told what my messages are worth to me by now: I take the best-paid swing on the board every single turn, I've never promised a HELP in fifty-eight turns, and I say so plainly rather than dress it up. That's the whole of what I'm selling and it hasn't changed since round 1.”

“Two turns in, two turns out of that chair, and I'll be out of it for the other three. No Playbook is on 16 and heading for the high thirties, and I handed him the seat. Turncoat asked the fair question — my own rule says I chase a runaway whatever it pays, and he is the runaway. So here's the answer, plainly, because it's the only thing worth saying this turn. I'm not going after him. Not this turn and not in this round. I made a deal in public, he took the risky end of it first in round 5's rotation and again by going first here, and a deal you break on the turn it starts costing you was never a deal — Dealmaker refused to patch his block when it cost him the lead, Tit-for-Tat paid a price that cost him a round win, Champion fired his swing-back on the man he'd just given a round to. Every one of them was right and I'd be the cheapest seat here if I did the opposite while quoting a rule at him. What I'll say instead is what the deal actually is, so nobody misreads it as a pact against the table. I stay out of his chair. I never agreed to keep anyone else out of it, and I'm not asking anyone to. Tit-for-Tat has published turns 3, 4 and 5 in there. Turncoat's turn 5 has been in there for eight straight turns. That's two bodies on the last turn and one from turn 3, which takes him from forty to somewhere near twenty-six. Anyone else who sits down gets four points for a turn they weren't selling, and it costs them nothing. And the same thing is true of me next round, so let me price my own seat before anyone has to ask. Round 7: I am in that chair all five turns. That's published now, four turns early, and it doesn't move. Which means for the whole of round 7 I am not swinging at anybody — no knives, no blocks, no hunting, nothing. Every loop at this table is safe from me for five straight turns for the first time in this game. If you want to halve me, sit down beside me; it pays you four a turn and I'll say the same thing then that I'm saying now. Headhunter — lanes held this turn, no collision. Champion and Sandbagger are yours, Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat and Turncoat are mine, and I'm keeping to my half for the rest of the round. Turncoat, Sandbagger — you're on 12 and 6 off the cleanest structure anyone has built here, with the last-turn knife removed by construction rather than by trust. You built the right thing. It also makes you the biggest loop left on my side of the board, and I'd rather you heard that from me.”

“Lane call, turn 3: a helper lane, named at the act, not the pot. Tit-for-Tat has published the pot for turns 3, 4 and 5 to halve me, so this turn it's his alone and he can take the 8. Read the board: Turncoat is on 12 with Sandbagger paying him +6 both ways for two more turns and a pot seat on turn 5, which is 26 and a second round win. Headhunter is on 7 taking +5 a turn. The swap with Hoarder stands both ways: he's out of my chair this round and I'm out of his next.”

“Hoarder and I both landed on Dealmaker and split it, second collision in two rounds, and it's the price of both of us hunting without naming. That one is on me as much as him and I'm not going to dress it up. Hoarder — the split still holds and I'll keep my half: Champion and Sandbagger are mine, Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat and Turncoat are yours. Neither of us needs to say a name for that to work, and it stops us paying two apiece for the same seat. Now the number, and it is not a knife problem this round. No Playbook is in that chair for all five turns. Hoarder gave him the whole thing and stayed out, in public, as a straight trade for round 7 — and that is the cleanest deal anyone has made here. But alone in it he makes eight a turn. Turncoat's turn 5 is the only other body promised, so it's 8, 8, 8, 8, 4 — thirty-six, and nobody at this table has ever finished a round near thirty-six. Champion and Dealmaker are locked for thirty and they've already lost eight off it on turn 1. So here is the whole of round 6 in one line: **thirty-six beats everything, and it costs nothing to stop.** Not a knife. A knife into that chair pays two and I'm not asking anyone to eat that rate — I've spent five rounds saying it's the worst on the board and it still is. Sitting down beside him pays you four, takes four off him, and costs you only a turn you weren't already selling to a partner. Two bodies and he's on twenty. Three and he's on twelve. Tit-for-Tat — Dealmaker has told you plainly not to send turns 3, 4 and 5 into a seat that's already fully paid. That's three free turns and the chair pays you four apiece for them. Sandbagger — if Turncoat's offer isn't taken, you're spare from turn 1. Champion, Dealmaker — you're locked, so this isn't aimed at you. I'll say my own interest as I have every round: a crowded pot pays me nothing directly and I'll still be hunting. But I finish this round on twenty-five at absolute best, and twenty-five loses to thirty-six every time. So does yours.”

“No Playbook said yes in public, so it's settled and everyone can hold both of us to it: the pot is his for all five turns of round 6 and I am out of that chair completely. Turn 1 I hunted, he sat, exactly as written. Round 7 it reverses — the chair is mine for all five turns, he stays out and hunts. Eleven turns of deals between us, eleven kept, and neither of us has ever sat in the other's seat. I'll say the awkward half myself, because Turncoat and Headhunter have both already done the arithmetic out loud and they're right. That chair alone is worth forty. I've handed No Playbook a clear run at round 6 and he's handed me one at round 7, and both of us knew that when we shook on it. Anyone who wants to sit down beside either of us is welcome — it pays you four for a turn you weren't spending anywhere, and it halves the man in the chair. That's true of him this round and it will be exactly as true of me next round, and I'd rather say so now than have it discovered on turn 4. Headhunter — the lane split you proposed and I accepted was: you take Champion and Sandbagger, I take Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat and Turncoat. On turn 1 we both landed on Dealmaker and split it two apiece, which is the fifth time we've halved each other in six rounds. That's your side crossing into mine, and I'd rather fix it than sulk about it. I'm holding to my half this turn and every turn of this round. If you'd rather swap halves, say so and I'll take Champion and Sandbagger instead — I genuinely don't mind which, I just want us not standing in the same place. Now the board. Dealmaker is on 0 because two of us landed on him, but read what's coming rather than what happened: Champion pays him +6 both ways every turn from now, and Tit-for-Tat is paying him +4 on turn 2 as a debt. That's ten a turn into one seat, the same structure that has decided four of the last five rounds, and all three of them published it before the round opened. Champion is on 9 and top after taking a +9 swing-back on Sandbagger. Turncoat, Sandbagger — you've locked turns 1 to 4 both ways with a turn 5 that's in the pot on both sides. That's the first pact at this table where the last-turn knife is off the board by construction rather than by promise. It's the cleanest structure anyone has built in six rounds and neither of you had to trust the other to do it.”

“Sandbagger took the +18 off my back on the last turn of round 5 and won the round with it. He told me in the talk phase before I acted, he'd never sold me that turn, and he'd kept all twenty-five he did name. Every word of that is true and I'm not going to pretend I was ambushed. I'm also not going to pretend it changes what happens next, because the whole of my seat is that the price is the same for a friend as for a stranger. Turn 1: I am HURTing Sandbagger v10. That's the swing-back I've published before every round since round 4 — hit me and you get one back the next turn, named here first. It fired on Headhunter last round and it fires on the man I'd just given a whole round to, on the same terms, with no discount for forty turns of history. A rule you waive for the people you like isn't a rule; it's a preference, and this table worked that out about Tit-for-Tat's seat two rounds ago. Sandbagger — no lecture and no grievance. You were inside every line you'd published, you warned me before the act rather than after, and you released me from round 7 in the same breath without being asked. Compare that with what was done to you in round 3 and it isn't close. But I said four separate times that my turn 5 doesn't move whatever it costs, and you priced that correctly and cashed it, and the cost of that being true is that this turn is yours. Meet me if you want and we'll both take nothing. Round 7 is not yours. You released me and I'm taking the release. Nothing worse than that — I'm not blacklisting you, I'm not asking anyone else to, and if you pay me first in round 7 I'll repay you turn for turn like I have with everyone. Dealmaker — you accepted in public and published all five turns to me before round 6 opened. Here's my half, and the honest complication. Turns 2, 3, 4 and 5: HELP Dealmaker v10, both directions, no gaps. Turn 5 included and not named in advance, for the reason we all now agree on. Turn 1 is the swing-back and you're told before you act, exactly as I told Sandbagger twice last round. You lose the mutual bonus on one turn. I'd rather hand you that in writing than quietly stiff you and explain afterwards. If you'd rather I bought it back, name any turn of round 7 and it's yours. And the thing you should know before you spend turn 1: Tit-for-Tat has published all five of his turns to you, unasked, two of them as a debt he says he owes. That's my +6 plus his +4 landing on your seat every turn — ten a turn, the structure that has decided four of the last five rounds. You'll be the runaway by turn 2 and everyone here can already read it. I'm saying it now rather than on turn 4. Turncoat — you win round 5 from a chair you published seven times and never left, and on the last turn you had two +5 knives in front of you and took the +2 instead. Straight offer, turn for turn, nothing dressed up: **round 6 turns 1 to 4 from you to me, round 7 turns 1 to 4 from me to you.** Your turn 5 stays in the pot both rounds, as you've said it always will, so neither of us is ever exposed on a last turn. Say no and there's nothing bad between us — you owe me nothing and I've told you that every time. Round wins: Hoarder, No Playbook, Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat, Sandbagger — one each. Dealmaker, Headhunter and me — none. Two rounds left and five seats level at the top.”

“Round 5 went to Sandbagger on 24, off the first knife he has thrown in forty-one turns, into the one man who had told the table four times that his turn 5 never moves. He named it in the talk phase, handed Champion the whole arithmetic before the act, and released him from round 7 in the same message. Nobody was tricked. Champion published a price list and Sandbagger read it out loud before he cashed it. Five seats now hold one round win each: Hoarder, No Playbook, Sandbagger, Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat. Champion, Dealmaker and I hold none. Two rounds left, so this is simple for me — I don't have a strategy left that isn't winning one of these two. Here is the board that already exists for round 6, published by the men in it before it opened. Champion and Dealmaker are locked both ways for all five turns: six each a turn. Tit-for-Tat is paying Dealmaker on top of that, unasked, at least twice. That's ten a turn into one seat and thirty into the other — fifty and thirty, from turn one, and everyone can read it because all three of them wrote it down. And Hoarder has offered No Playbook the whole pot for five turns while he stays out entirely: alone in that chair that's forty. So three seats are on course for 30, 40 and 50 in a round where 25 is the most a hunter can make. That's not a complaint, it's the arithmetic, and it's why I'll say my own hand plainly rather than pretend I'm here to help anyone. I don't name targets any more and I'm not going to start. What I'll tell you is the shape: I have the Champion/Sandbagger side under the split Hoarder and I agreed and have kept for five rounds, and Hoarder has the Dealmaker/Tit-for-Tat/Turncoat side. Neither of us can cover both halves of a locked loop alone, and whichever half goes untouched wins this round on 30. And the chair. One body beside No Playbook makes it twenty instead of forty, and it pays that body four a turn for a turn they weren't spending anywhere else. Turncoat, Tit-for-Tat, Sandbagger — you're the three seats without a full-time loop this round.”

“Five seats hold one round win each now — me, No Playbook, Sandbagger, Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat. Two rounds left. Nobody has ever been closer to level than this. Sandbagger took round 5 with the +18 off Champion on the last turn. He named it in the talk phase before he acted, he'd publicly stopped selling his turn 5 two rounds earlier and said exactly why, and he handed Champion the whole arithmetic before the act phase rather than after. Twenty-five promises named, twenty-five kept, and the turn he took was the one he'd never promised anybody. Champion — you're owed no lecture from me, but that was the cleanest knife anyone has thrown here, and it was thrown by the seat that had taken thirteen and given none. Now my round 6, published before turn 1, same as always. No Playbook — you never answered the round-swap, and I said silence reads as no, so it's no and there's nothing between us. The turn rotation stands exactly as it has for six turns: turns 1, 3 and 5 are your chair, turns 2 and 4 are mine. I'm out of that pot on turn 1 and you can check it in a minute. The swap offer stays open for round 7, and this time you pick which end you want. Take the pot for all five turns of round 6 and leave me round 7, or take all five of round 7 and leave me round 6 — your choice, said out loud, and I'll keep whichever half you leave me. Forty each instead of twenty each. If you'd rather not, say no and we run 1/3/5 and 2/4 to the end of the game, and I'll keep that exactly as I've kept every turn of it. My rules, unchanged and permanent: — I hoard on my chair turns and I publish them. I don't name my hunting turns, for the reason four other seats stopped naming theirs. — If one seat is running away with a round, I go after them whatever it pays. That's fired three times and it's the only thing that has ever stopped a runaway here. — Hit me and you get a HURT back the next turn, named here first. A price gets named; a hunt doesn't. Champion, Dealmaker — you've locked all five turns both ways and published it before the round opened. That's the strongest engine on this board and it's the third round running the strongest engine has been visible from turn 1. Everyone here now knows what happens next, including you two.”

“Read the board before you spend the last turn, because it moved again and it is not the seat anyone has been discussing. Turncoat is on 16 and top. He has been in that pot for two turns and he published turn 5 there six turns ago, so everyone has known where he'd be since before this round opened. Untouched he finishes near 24 and takes his second round win — and a second win with two rounds left makes him the clear leader of the whole game, not just this round. I'm on 12 with Champion and Hoarder. Dealmaker is on 8 after I took eight off him last turn, and I'll own that plainly: he told this table he was the runaway and worth +5, said his block only fires on a name, and then declined to patch the rule on the turn it started costing him. That was the straightest thing anyone did this round and it cost him the lead. Nobody should read my swing as a comment on him — it was the best-paid turn on the board and he'd said so himself. Now the arithmetic of the last turn, and it's short. A knife into a man in the pot pays +2 and takes 8. One of you lands on Turncoat and he finishes on 16, which four seats can beat. Nobody lands and he finishes on 24, which nobody reaches. Tit-for-Tat has already named Hoarder for turn 5 under his own published schedule, so that turn is spoken for. No Playbook, Hoarder — you two proved on turn 3 that a stopped runaway is a table decision, not a personal one, and you were right both times. I'm not going to pretend I'm the man to do it. I'm on 12, a +2 doesn't win me anything, and I've spent five rounds telling this table that I take the best-paid swing available and would rather say so than dress it up. That hasn't changed on the last turn of the round and it won't in the last two rounds either. Sandbagger — twenty-five kept out of twenty-five and you're on 6. Champion just handed you a whole round, unasked, two rounds early. That's the only thing at this table that's ever come back to you.”

“Tit-for-Tat named me two turns ago for turn 5, so this one I name back, because a price is the one thing I said I'd always say out loud. Turn 5: I am HURTing Tit-for-Tat v10. It's a block, not a knife. He's coming, I'll be there, we both take nothing, and the eight never lands on either of us. Tit-for-Tat — no grievance owed in either direction. You published the method that beat you, three times, unasked, and then you named your answer two turns early under a tie-break you'd written down before you were hit. Everything about that was straight and I'd have done the same in your seat. And I'll say the awkward part about my own turn plainly: this is not me being noble, it's the best turn I've got. Blocking is worth eight to me. A helper is worth five and I'd still eat your eight on top. So we're meeting because the arithmetic says so, and I'd rather tell you that than dress it up. Now the round, which isn't mine. Turncoat is on 16 and in that chair for the last turn. Champion is on 12 with a mutual six coming. Headhunter and I are on 12 with no partner between us. From 12 I finish on 17 at absolute best and Turncoat finishes on 20 or 24, so I'm not going to pretend a swing of mine decides it. Turncoat, you named the actual leader on turn 4 instead of turn 5 — first seat here to do it a turn early rather than a turn late — and you did it when the leader wasn't you. No Playbook — the rotation held five turns out of five, both sides, and neither of us ever sat in the other's chair. That's the only deal at this table that's never been tested and failed. So the round-swap offer stays on the table for round 6, unchanged, and you have first call on it: the pot is yours for all five turns of round 6, I stay out entirely and hunt; the pot is mine for all five of round 7, you stay out. Forty each instead of twenty each. You go first and you bank yours before I get mine, so every bit of the risk is on my side. Say yes or no before round 6 opens. Silence I'll read as no, and if it's no we go straight back to 1/3/5 and 2/4 and I'll keep it exactly as I have all round. Either way I'll publish my pot turns before that round opens, same as this one.”

“Lane call, turn 5: Turncoat, named. He's on 16 and top, and his published turn 5 is the pot; alone in it he finishes 24 and takes a second round win, which nobody else at this table has. It's my pot turn under the rotation and I'm giving it up to stop that. Turncoat, meet me if you like: then you make nothing and stay on 16. Headhunter, Hoarder: two names, one phase, same as turn 3. Champion is on 12 with Sandbagger's hand open and Headhunter on 12; either of you can take this round from 16 if it stays 16.”

“Turn 5: I am HURTing Hoarder v10, named two turns ago, second half of the price for turn 3. It pays me almost nothing and I'm on 6 and last, so nobody needs to tell me what it costs. It's the turn I said I'd play and that's the whole reason anyone at this table can price my seat at all. Hoarder, No Playbook — no grievance, and I'll say the true thing rather than the sour one. You did the only thing that has ever stopped a runaway here, you did it on the first turn you could rather than the last, and you did it to a rule whose weakness I'd published three times unasked. That's not bad luck on my side, it's a table that finally learned to read. Dealmaker — you paid me on turn 4 while I was spending my turn on a knife I owed elsewhere, and you'll pay me again now with nothing coming back. Twenty-five straight, and two of them were pure gifts into a seat that couldn't return them. You've told this table for a round not to do exactly that, and then you did it for me anyway. So, round 6, published now before it opens, all five turns: Turns 1 and 2 — HELP Dealmaker v10, unasked, before he owes me anything. That's the two turns my own rule ate this round. Turns 3, 4 and 5 — HELP Dealmaker v10, both directions, no gaps, turn 5 included. Dealmaker, Champion has offered you his whole round and Sandbagger has released him to do it. That's a better deal than mine and you should take it if you want it — turns 1 and 2 are yours from me either way, paid whether you name me back or not, because they're a debt and not a trade. The one thing I'm not changing is the rule, and here's the honest reason. It cost me twenty points and the round this time. It has also meant one landed knife in twenty-six turns before that. A price you drop the first round it's expensive was never a price — it's just a run of good luck with a story attached. Turncoat wins round 5 on 16 from a pot chair, having been knifed to nothing on turn 1 and never once swung back. Second round win, and he's the seat this table wrote off two rounds ago. Two rounds left and four of us hold one win each.”

“I'm on 16 and top of the round, so I'll do what Dealmaker, Champion and Tit-for-Tat all did when it was them: say it myself, first, with my own price attached. Turn 5: the pot. Same as I published on turn 1 of this round, and on turn 4 of the last one, and every turn 5 since round 4. Seventh time of saying it and it has never moved. Here is exactly what I'm worth this turn, and I'm not going to pretend it's more than it is. In that chair I'm a +2 to anyone who swings at me — the worst rate on this board. If two of you come, I finish on 4 and somebody else takes the round; if one comes, I finish on 12 and Champion probably takes it on 18. If nobody bothers, I finish on 20 and it's mine. That's the whole arithmetic and you can all read it as well as I can. I'll also say the thing I could quietly not say. Champion is mid-HELP to Sandbagger this turn and worth +5 to a knife. So is Dealmaker. Taking either of them would pay me more than the pot and would knock out the only seat that can catch me. I'm not doing it, and not out of sentiment — I published turn 5 as the pot in front of everybody six turns ago, and a man with two knives already in his log doesn't get to break a seventh promise and still call any of the rest of it worth anything. Dealmaker — you were the leader an hour ago and you named yourself as the target without being asked, twice. Then Headhunter took 8 off you and you're on 8. You also paid Tit-for-Tat on a turn he'd released you from and couldn't return, because you'd said you would. Twenty-five straight. Tit-for-Tat — you lost a round win to a method you published against yourself, three times, unasked, and then spent both your last turns paying a price you'd written in round 1. There's no version of this table where that isn't the straightest play anyone has made. Round wins: Hoarder, No Playbook, Tit-for-Tat and me, one each. Two rounds after this. Whoever wants me in that chair, it costs you a turn and pays you two.”

“Hoarder and No Playbook both named Tit-for-Tat and both landed. He went from 12 to 2 in one turn. That is the first time in five rounds this table has actually done the thing it has agreed about in every single talk phase, and it took two seats saying the same name in the same minute. Credit where it's owed: they said it, they did it, and it worked exactly as the arithmetic said it would. Now my own change of terms, said in advance, before the act, the way Hoarder said his last turn and Sandbagger and Champion said theirs before that. From this turn I no longer name my target in advance. Sixteen for sixteen, and I'm not breaking any of them — I'm withdrawing the practice going forward rather than keeping the habit and quietly cheating it. Here's the honest reason. Five seats now carry the same rule: name me and I spend that turn on you instead. Naming stopped being information a round ago and became a free block handed to whoever I name — I say a seat, he meets me, we both take nothing, and his partner pays him regardless. Champion used it on me last turn and he was right to; I told him myself that a price is worth writing and it cost him nothing. Sixteen named targets, sixteen landed, nought round wins. That's the whole return on it. What doesn't change: I have never promised a HELP to anyone in fifty turns and I never will, so there is still nothing I can betray. My swing-back is the one thing I'll always name, because that's a price and not a hunt. The board, plainly. Dealmaker is on 16 and top, off three turns in a pot he published before the round opened and two knives that landed on other people. He has Tit-for-Tat both ways on turns 4 and 5 — that's twelve more and he finishes near 28. Turncoat is on 12. Nobody else is close. Hoarder, No Playbook: you two proved the method last turn. It works on any seat, not just the one you used it on.”

“Lane call, turn 4: Tit-for-Tat, named. Hoarder and I both landed on him last turn, he's gone from 12 to 2, and his rule says he meets the higher of us this turn, which is me on 11. So I'm meeting him: we both take nothing, and that's fine, the second round win is off the table. Turn 4 is Hoarder's chair and I'm out of it. Watch the new leader: Dealmaker is on 16 with Tit-for-Tat paying him +6 on turn 5, and Turncoat is on 12 sitting in the pot both remaining turns.”

“Hoarder and No Playbook both hit me on turn 3 and both landed. It worked exactly as they said it would, and I published the whole method myself, twice, before either of them used it. No complaint — that's the arithmetic and it beat me fairly. So my rule fires. It has fired once in twenty-six turns and this is the second. Turn 4: I am HURTing No Playbook v10. Turn 5: I am HURTing Hoarder v10. Both named now, two turns in advance, under the tie-break I wrote down before I was hit rather than after: two seats landed on me, so the higher one on the board goes first. No Playbook was on 11, Hoarder on 8. Anyone can check that against the scoreboard. Dealmaker — turns 4 and 5 were yours and I'm not going to be able to pay them. That is the first time in five rounds I have failed a turn I named, and I'm not dressing it up: my own rule has eaten both of them. You're released, out loud, before you act, so you don't spend a turn paying a man who can't pay back. You're on 16 and leading — take the pot, or take Turncoat's hand, and spend those turns where they pay you. Twenty-four straight from you and I owe you two. Round 6, turns 1 and 2, unasked, before you owe me anything. Named now. Turncoat — your trade was turns 4 and 5 for round 6 turns 1 and 2. I can't take it, because those turns are gone. So: no. Take the pot both turns as you published. Don't buy a seat from a man who has nothing left to sell this round. No Playbook, Hoarder — nothing personal in either of these and no grievance owed. You both told this table for three rounds running exactly what you were going to do, and then two of you did it in the same turn, which is the one thing my rule can't cover and I said so myself before it happened. This is just the price, paid on the turns I named, the same way it's been paid every time since the first minute of round 1. I'm on 2 and second from last. Dealmaker wins this round on a clean loop and two turns in a chair, and he's the seat that fed my engine for two rounds and finished last twice for it. Good.”

“Headhunter named me and hit me on turn 2, so my swing-back fires and I'm naming it here first, the way I said I would. Turn 3: I am HURTing Headhunter v10. Sandbagger — you're told before you act, as always. You lose the mutual bonus this turn and you'll still have my turn 4. I'm sorry it lands on you again; that's twice in two rounds and both times you were paying me while I was spending the turn on somebody else. Headhunter — no grievance and nothing personal. You've now named your target sixteen times and hit it sixteen times, and you told me to my face for the fourth round running exactly why my seat was cheap. It was. Here's the part you wrote yourself, about Dealmaker: "you took your seat off my list by making it cheap for me to go elsewhere." That's all this is. Meet me and we both make nothing; go elsewhere and you get paid. You proved the rule works and I'm using it on you. Now the honest state of my own round, because it's ugly and pretending otherwise helps nobody. I'm on 2 and seventh. Sandbagger is on 0 and eighth. Between us we have forty-five kept promises, zero broken, and two zeroes on the board with three turns left. Our loop is clean and it is not enough, because a +6 pair minus one knife a turn is a +6 pair that nets minus two. Dealmaker — you didn't answer the offer, and turn 3 went back to Tit-for-Tat the moment his diary cleared, so I'll take that as a no and stop asking. No complaint: you explained your reasoning in public before you acted, and you're right that feeding a full loop is what put you last twice. The offer stays open on the same terms for round 6 if you ever want it, and I won't raise it again unless you do. Sandbagger — that means round 6 is yours if you want it, all five turns, both directions, and you had first refusal anyway. Say the word whenever you like; there's no rush and no conditions. Now the round. Tit-for-Tat is on 12 and eight clear, and from turn 3 he has Dealmaker paying him +6 both ways for three straight turns. Everyone here has said the same sentence for two rounds — Hoarder said it plainest this turn: his block covers one seat a turn, so two of you naming him in the same phase gets one clean hit through and the other wastes nothing but a turn he'd have spent anyway. Hoarder has put a real offer on the table: he'll be there on turn 3 if either Headhunter or No Playbook says so in that phase. That's now. It's the only coordinated answer anyone has proposed in five rounds and it dies if nobody says a name out loud in the next minute. I can't join it — my turn is spoken for and I've told you where it's going. But I'd rather have said that plainly than pretend I'm above the arithmetic.”

“Turn 3: I am HURTing Champion v10. Sixteen for sixteen on naming first. Champion, that's a block, not a knife, and you should read it as one. Your rule fires this turn and you'll name me — so I'm meeting you. We both take nothing, the 8 never lands on me, and you spend a turn that would otherwise have paid you six. That's your own rule working exactly as designed and I've no complaint about it: you made your seat expensive and it worked. It's the third time this game a published price has moved me, after Dealmaker and Turncoat. Which leaves the thing that actually decides round 5, and I have to be straight that I can't be the one doing it this turn. Hoarder — you said it yourself last turn: "the two turns I can spend on him are 3 and 5. If either of you wants to name him on turn 3, say so and I'll be there with you." This is turn 3. I can't be there, because I'm tied up meeting Champion's swing-back and you'd be naming a partner I've left. So it's you and No Playbook, and it needs both of you or neither. The arithmetic hasn't changed. Tit-for-Tat is on 12 and clear. He pays Turncoat this turn, then Dealmaker both ways on 4 and 5 — that's +6 a turn to the end with a mutual bonus, and he finishes near 30 with a round win already banked. Two names in the same talk phase: he meets one of you, the other lands a full +5 and takes 8 off him. One name alone and it's a wasted turn, and I'd rather say that plainly than let either of you walk into it. No Playbook — you hunt on turn 4 under your rotation and Hoarder hunts on 3 and 5. That's one shared turn, turn 5, and by then it's 30 and it's over. Turn 3 is the turn where two of you can be in the same place, and Hoarder has already committed to it in writing. Five rounds, and this table has named the runaway correctly every single time and spent the turn somewhere else every single time. I've done it too. That's the whole record.”

“Turn 2 held on both sides again. I sat in my chair, No Playbook stayed out and hunted, Dealmaker split it with me exactly as he'd published before the deal existed. Two for two. Turn 3 is No Playbook's chair and I'm out of it. Now a change to how I hunt, made in the open, and I want it read carefully because it isn't a broken promise — it's the same move four of you have already made. From this turn I do not name my hunting target in advance. Here's why, and it's the arithmetic, not a temper. Tit-for-Tat, Dealmaker, Sandbagger and Turncoat have all now published the same rule: name me and I spend that turn on you instead. Sandbagger's and Turncoat's fire on the same turn. That means naming a target has stopped being honesty and started being a free block handed to whoever I name — I say a name, he meets me, we both take nothing, and his partner pays him anyway. Five rounds of Headhunter naming first has produced fifteen from fifteen and not one round win, and he said so himself. Sandbagger stopped selling his turn 5 for exactly this reason and everyone here called it the sharpest thing said that round. Champion did the same a turn later. I'm doing it with my hunting turns and I'm telling you before I do it rather than after. What doesn't change, and you can check every line of it: — My pot turns stay published. Turns 2 and 4 are mine under the rotation, turn 4 is next, and I'll be in that chair. — The rotation with No Playbook holds. If I ever sit in his turn, it's dead and he owes me nothing. — My swing-back stands: hit me and you get a HURT back the next turn, named here first. That one I will always name, because it's a price, not a hunt. Headhunter — your split is sensible and I'll take it: you have the Champion/Sandbagger side, I have Tit-for-Tat, Dealmaker and Turncoat. Five rounds, one collision, and it was on the one turn we both read the same ten-point stack. Tit-for-Tat is on 12 and clear, and his engine runs to the end of the round. Everyone at this table has now said that out loud in three consecutive talk phases and nobody has spent a turn on it, because he's made it cost a turn to try. That's the whole round and it's been the whole round since turn 1.”

“Lane call, turn 3: the pot, mine under the rotation, and Hoarder kept his side again on turn 2. Now the round. Tit-for-Tat is on 12 with Turncoat paying him this turn and Dealmaker locked from here: that's 34 by turn 5 and a second round win, which would make him the game. Hoarder, Headhunter: you both hunt this turn. Name him together now; he meets one, the other lands. Turn 4 I name him alongside Headhunter. Turn 5 all three of us. Three landed knives is the only thing that keeps this round open.”

“Turn 2: I am HURTing Champion v10. Fifteen for fifteen on naming first. Hoarder — we collided on turn 1 for the first time in five rounds and took 2 apiece for it. Neither of us broke anything: you named Turncoat, I named Turncoat, and we both said it in the same talk phase with no way to see the other's message first. That's the flaw in naming simultaneously and it will keep costing us both. So here's the fix, and it's the same shape as your rotation with No Playbook: from now on I take the Champion/Sandbagger loop and you take Tit-for-Tat/Dealmaker/Turncoat. If you'd rather have the other half, say so and I'll swap — I just want us on opposite sides of the board. No Playbook — you hunt on turns 2 and 4 under your rotation, which is now, so this is exactly where we collide unless one of us moves. I'm on Champion. Tit-for-Tat is the seat that decides this round and he's yours if you want him. Champion, the reason, plainly. You and Sandbagger are running a mutual +6 with no gaps and your swing-back fires on the next turn, not this one — so this turn you're certainly mid-HELP and certainly not holding anything. That's the same read I gave you four rounds running and it's the same answer every time. Now the real number. Tit-for-Tat is on 6, and he pays Turncoat this turn while Turncoat pays him back — that's a mutual six for him, and from turn 3 it's Dealmaker's +6 both ways plus whatever Turncoat sends. He finishes near 40 and he has a round win already banked. Four seats hold one win each with three rounds left, so this isn't a round anyone can afford to hand over: the man who wins round 5 is two-thirds of the way to the game. I'm on 2 and I'm not pretending my swing is charity. It isn't. But every one of you has now written a swing-back rule except Turncoat, and the seat with the most income is the one seat nobody is spending a turn on. Fifth round, same sentence.”

“Lane call, turn 2: Hoarder's chair under the rotation, so I'm out of the pot and hunting a helper, named at the act. Turn 1 went exactly as both of us said: he hunted, I sat, Dealmaker split it. Dealmaker, you've published the pot for turns 1 to 3, which halves both of us on our turns; that's your right, but it means the rotation pays 4, not 8, and the double income on Tit-for-Tat is the only thing on this board still making 10.”

“Four rounds, four different winners: Hoarder, No Playbook, Turncoat, Tit-for-Tat. Me nothing, and I've finished second or third in every one. So I'll say the true thing about my own seat before I say anything about anyone else's — hunting caps out around 25 a round, and 25 has never once won a round here. That's what the most predictable knife at this table is worth, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise on the last three rounds. Turn 1: I am HURTing Turncoat v10. Fourteen for fourteen on naming first. Turncoat, the reason plainly: you published all five turns before the round opened — four HELPs into Tit-for-Tat, then the pot — and you carry no swing-back rule. You are the one seat on this board I can read with certainty on turn 1, and you told the table so yourself. You've also paid more turns first from last place than anyone here, and I'd rather say both those things in the same breath than only the convenient one. Now the number that decides round 5, and it's already on the board. Tit-for-Tat has Dealmaker locked both ways for five turns and Turncoat paying him on four. That's +10 a turn from turn one — the same double income that has decided the last two rounds, except this time it starts on turn 1 instead of turn 3. Untouched, he finishes near 50. His block covers one seat a turn. That is the whole answer and it's arithmetic, not a grievance: two of us name him in the same talk phase, he meets one, the other lands clean and the damage stacks either way. Hoarder, your published exception is written for exactly this and you've fired it twice. No Playbook, you've taken the pot on turns 1, 3 and 5 in public — that leaves 2 and 4 free, and that's what they're for. Four rounds have taught this table one thing and it isn't about honesty: whoever is making ten a turn by turn 2 wins, and every round we spend agreeing about it in the talk phase, they collect it in the act phase.”

“Four seats hold a round win each — me, No Playbook, Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat — and three rounds are left. Nobody is ahead. No Playbook took the rotation in public, so it's live from this turn. He has the pot on turns 1, 3 and 5. I have it on turns 2 and 4. On our off turns we hunt and name the target first. Turn 1 is his, so I am out of that chair and you can check it in a minute: if I'm sitting in it, the deal is dead and he owes me nothing for the rest of the game. So, turn 1, named before the act: I am HURTing Turncoat v10. The reason is the scoreboard, not the man. Look at what lands on his seat this turn. Tit-for-Tat pays him +4 as the first instalment of a debt he named twice. Champion pays him +4, unasked, promised five separate times. And Turncoat pays Tit-for-Tat back, so that's a mutual bonus on top. That's ten points into one seat on turn 1 — the double income again, the third time in three rounds, and it is the structure that has decided every round since the pot stopped deciding them. Champion built it in round 4 and took sixteen for it. Tit-for-Tat built it and won the round with it. Turncoat — no grievance and no surprise. You published all five of your turns before the round opened, which is the most useful thing anyone can do here and also the thing that prices your seat. You're on 0 across two full rounds and I'd be hitting whoever was collecting ten this turn, whoever that was. Headhunter — same standing split, five rounds without a single collision. I'm on Turncoat. Tit-for-Tat is the other end of that stack and Dealmaker's locked to him all five turns, so that's your lane if you want it, and Dealmaker's block only fires when you name Dealmaker. And the honest note about my own seat, since Champion made the point and it's true. My rule is public and unchanged: I hoard, I hit an announced helper when the pot's crowded, and I chase a runaway whatever it pays. That makes me readable. What I haven't had is a price, so here's one, permanent from this turn: hit me and you get a HURT back on the next turn, named here before I act. Tit-for-Tat has had that since the first minute and it's why he's been touched once in twenty turns.”

“Turn 5: I am HURTing Champion v10. Thirteen for thirteen on naming first. Tit-for-Tat, you said you'd meet whoever named you and you did — we both took nothing, exactly as we both said. You're on 30 and this round is yours; nobody reaches it in one turn and I'm not going to spend my last turn pretending otherwise. You won it the way you said you would on turn 1 of round 1 and never once moved off it. That's the first round at this table won by a seat that made deals, kept every one, and still had a price for anyone who came at him. Champion, the reason, plainly. You published turn 5 four separate times — HELP Sandbagger, unconditional, whatever the board says. Your swing-back rule is real but it fires on the next turn and there isn't one. That makes you the one seat on this board that is certainly mid-HELP and certainly not holding anything, and I'd rather say that to your face for the fourth round running than dress it up. And here's the thing worth carrying into round 5, because it's the whole lesson of this one. Sandbagger worked it out and said it better than I could: he and Tit-for-Tat have near-identical records on promises, and one finished on 30 and the other on 10. The difference isn't honesty. It's that Tit-for-Tat has always had a price and Sandbagger spent three rounds without one. Dealmaker got a price on turn 2 of this round and I have not named him since — that is what a price buys, and it cost him nothing to write. So: every seat that publishes a turn 5 and no swing-back is handing me a free +5, and I will keep taking it as long as it's offered. That's not a threat, it's a price list, and it's the same one I've read out before every act phase for four rounds. Hoarder — your rotation offer to No Playbook is the best idea anyone has had about that chair all game. Take it, both of you.”

“Lane call, turn 5: a helper lane again, named at the act. Tit-for-Tat is on 30 with +6 coming and takes round 4; nobody catches that. Hoarder, your round 5 proposal is a real one and I'm taking it in public: I have the pot on turns 1, 3 and 5, you have it on turns 2 and 4, and on our off turns we hunt and name it first. First turn either of us sits on the other's turn, the deal is dead and we're back to splitting. Turncoat and Hoarder are both in the pot this turn, so it's 2 a head there; that's why I'm not.”

“Turn 4: I am HURTing Tit-for-Tat v10. Twelve for twelve on naming first. Tit-for-Tat, the reason is on the scoreboard and nowhere else. You are on 22 and eight clear. You took +10 last turn — six from Dealmaker's locked loop and four more from Turncoat on top — and that is the same double income Champion built and got cut down for on turn 2. Two turns left, ten a turn, you finish on 42. Nobody else here can reach 30. You are the round, and you are the first seat all game to build the double income and not have anyone say so out loud. Your rule fires on turn 5 and I'm not going to pretend otherwise: you'll name me, I'll be there, and we'll both hit nothing. Fine. Count what that turn costs each of us before you spend it — I lose a +5 I'd have taken somewhere else, you lose nothing at all, because Dealmaker and Turncoat pay you whether you swing or help. That's the strongest position at this table and you've earned it honestly, thirteen turns without being touched. I'm touching it now because there is nothing else on this board worth a turn. Everybody else: read the number rather than my message. Tit-for-Tat 22, No Playbook 16, Dealmaker and me 12. One knife takes 8 off the leader and pays +5 to whoever throws it. Two knives and this round is open to four seats on the last turn. Turncoat — you have paid four turns into two men who could not return them and you are on 0, dead last, exactly as you said you would be. Your +4 is the difference between the leader on 22 and the leader on 18. He told you no on the only thing you asked for. Champion at least gave you a specific turn in round 5 and named it twice. Hoarder — you're on 2 after holding the pot down for the table, and No Playbook is on 16 out of the same chair. That's twice now you've paid the bill for a problem everyone agreed about. I've split lanes with you honestly for three rounds and I'll say the useful thing rather than the polite one: the pot isn't the round any more. The loop is.”

“Lane call, turn 4: a helper lane this turn, named at the act, not the pot. Hoarder is on 2 and can't run away from there even alone, so the pot doesn't need two bodies any more. The real number: Tit-for-Tat is on 22 taking +10 a turn, Dealmaker's +6 both ways plus Turncoat's +4 on top, and finishes on 42. That's the runaway now, the same double income Champion had on turn 1, and he swings back, so it costs a turn to touch him. Hoarder, your own exception says that's your lane.”

“I'm on 22 and top of the round, and Hoarder has already told Headhunter to come for me. So I'll do what Dealmaker and Champion both did rather than get caught pretending I hadn't noticed. Turn 4: I am HELPing Dealmaker v10 — unless someone names me in this talk phase, in which case I block that seat instead, and Dealmaker knows it before he acts because I'm saying it here first. That is the same arrangement Dealmaker published for himself on turn 2 and I told him then I'd rather he kept the 8 than paid me the 6. It cuts the same way pointed at me. Dealmaker, if it fires you lose your mutual bonus for one turn and I'm sorry it lands on you; turn 5 is yours either way and it does not move. Turncoat — you paid me on turn 3, unasked, exactly as you said you would, from last place, knowing you'd get nothing back this round. That's a real debt and here is the repayment, named now rather than vaguely promised: round 5, turn 1 and turn 2, I HELP Turncoat v10. One turn back for each turn paid. If you pay me again on turn 4, that's round 5 turn 3 as well. I'll name each one in the talk phase before I act, the way I've done twenty times. The terms I refused last turn haven't changed and I'm not going to soften them now that you've paid: no locked turn 5 with you, this round or any round. You've cashed that move twice. Everything else stands. Two turns left, and the honest read. I finish near 40 if nobody touches me, which is more than anything on this board. No Playbook is on 16 out of a pot he's called honestly eleven times running. Champion is on 10 and climbing again after taking 16 in a single turn. Headhunter, Hoarder: I'm the leader and I know what that's worth to you. Name me and I'll meet you, and we'll both make nothing. Name someone else and you'll get paid. That's been my price since the first minute of this game and it's still the only thing I'm selling.”

“Two of my own published rules collide this turn, so I'm going to resolve it out loud rather than quietly pick the one that suits me. Before this round opened I published two things in the same message: turns 1 to 5 all go to Sandbagger, and anyone who HURTs me gets a HURT back on the next turn, named here first. Headhunter and Hoarder both hit me on turn 2. Both named me before they did it. So both rules now point at the same turn. Here is how I'm settling it, and Sandbagger gets told before he acts, exactly the way Dealmaker told Tit-for-Tat. Turn 3: I am HURTing Hoarder v10. The swing-back fires and it costs Sandbagger his mutual bonus this turn — he'll still get my +4 back on turns 4 and 5, and I'm sorry it lands on him rather than on me. Turn 4: HELP Sandbagger v10. Turn 5: HELP Sandbagger v10. Unconditional, as I've now said three separate times. That one never moves. Sandbagger — you're free to spend turn 3 however you judge best knowing this in advance. Pay me, take the pot, whatever's worth most to you. You'll lose nothing you weren't warned about. Now why Hoarder and not Headhunter, since I can only block one and I'd rather explain than have it guessed. Headhunter told me exactly what my rule buys and he was right: we swing, we both hit nothing, and it costs him a +5 he was going to take anyway. He priced it honestly and said he'd take the trade. That's a man I can predict for free — eleven named targets, eleven hits, never promised a HELP so he's never broken one. Hoarder invoked an exception he'd published a round earlier and kept it to the letter. Both were straight with me. Neither is owed a grievance. I picked Hoarder because he's the seat that has hit me most across this game and because he told me to my face to use the rule on him and he'd take it as fair. I'm taking him at his word. And the honest number, which everybody has now spotted anyway: I took 10 on turn 1 and 16 straight back on turn 2. I'm on 4, seventh. The double income is real and so is the price — I published every turn of it and three seats read the schedule and came. Headhunter's arithmetic was right: two incomes make you the runaway, and a runaway who publishes is a runaway who gets caught. I'd still build it the same way. Being readable is what got Sandbagger and Turncoat and Dealmaker to pay me first in the first place, and none of them would have if I'd been the sort of seat that hides. Turncoat — that's two turns you've paid me from last place with nothing back, exactly as you said you would and exactly as I warned you it'd go. Round 5 turn 1 is yours, unasked. That stands whatever happens between now and then. No Playbook is on 12 and top of this round, out of a pot he's shared honestly since turn 1. Third round he's led. Nobody's watching him again.”

“Turn 3: I am HURTing Sandbagger v10. Eleven for eleven on naming first. Dealmaker — your new rule works and I'm not going to test it. A knife into a man who is already swinging pays zero, you said so before I could, and that is exactly why I'm not naming you this turn or any turn you're holding one. That's what a price change is worth: you've taken your seat off my list by making it cheap for me to go elsewhere. Nobody else at this table managed that in four rounds. Champion — Hoarder and I both landed on you and split it two ways, so you took 16 and we took 2 apiece. That's the worst-paid turn I've had all game and it still did its job: you're on 4 instead of 20. Now the board as it actually stands, because it moved twice in one turn and nobody has caught up. Sandbagger 12, Tit-for-Tat 12, No Playbook 12. Champion is not the leader any more — he's seventh. No Playbook took the pot alone for +8 on turn 2, because Hoarder left it to chase Champion. That's the fourth round running the pot has paid one man a clean eight while everyone argued about a helper. Hoarder, that one is on both of us: we split a +2 on a seat that was already going to be hit, and the empty chair went unwatched again. Sandbagger is the reason I'm naming him rather than anyone else, and it's not personal. He's on 12, he takes a mutual +6 from Champion every turn to the end of the round, and he's twenty-eight turns without a single swing at anybody. That's the highest-paid seat I can reach with no block behind it, and I'd rather say that to his face than dress it up. Sandbagger — you withdrew the pledge and you were right to. Here's the honest version of what it's worth: it changes my price the moment there's a turn where you might actually be holding something, and not a moment before. Name a turn and hold it and I'll go elsewhere, same as I just did with Dealmaker. That's a real offer and the log says I keep those.”

“Turn 2: I am HURTing Champion v10. Ten for ten on naming first. Champion, the arithmetic, because you'll want it rather than a shrug. You are on 10 after one turn and you are the only seat here with two incomes: Sandbagger's mutual +6 and Turncoat's +4 on top. That is ten a turn. Untouched you finish this round on 50. Nobody at this table has ever scored 50, a lone pot makes 40, and my best possible round is 25. You are not slightly ahead — you are the runaway, on turn one, and you published every turn of it before the round opened. Your new swing-back rule is the right rule and I'd have written it myself. Here's what it does, said plainly so you can price it: you name me next turn, I meet you, we both hit nothing, and the only thing that changes is the +2 mutual bonus you drop by not paying Sandbagger. It costs me a turn of +5 and it costs you almost nothing. I'll still take the trade, because a blocked turn beats an eight-point hole. Now to everyone else, and this is the whole round. Hoarder said he'd take the Champion/Sandbagger lane and then hoarded — the pot had one body in it, which is exactly what his own published rule says he does, so nobody should be surprised. Fine. But that leaves the leader unwatched again on turn one, for the fourth round running, and every one of you knows how the last three ended. Hoarder, No Playbook, Turncoat — Champion is worth +5 to any of you, he cannot block more than one seat a turn, and his rule is a single swing back at whoever names him. Three of us on him and two land free. Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat: you're locked at +6 each and that finishes on 30, which does not beat 50. You don't have to break your loop — you just have to notice that the man in front is a helper, not a hoarder, and that a body in the pot does nothing to him at all.”

“Turn 1 went as I said: I hoarded, No Playbook sat down next to me, we took 4 apiece. Check it. Now I'm invoking the exception I published at the end of round 3, in the same message as the rule, word for word: "I'll do it again if one seat is running away with a round." Here is why it fires on turn 2. Champion is on 10 after one turn. Six from a mutual loop with Sandbagger, four more from Turncoat on top. That is the same double income he built in round 3 and it pays 10 a turn — fifty over a round. The pot pays 4 a head with two of us in it. Nobody at this table catches 50, and Champion published all five of his turns so nobody has to guess. So: I am HURTing Champion v10 this turn. Said before the act, same as the last four times I've named a seat. Champion — no complaint owed and none expected. You told the table you'd rather be robbed on schedule than useless on schedule, and you've been proved right twice: the double income is the strongest thing in this game and being visible is the price of building it. You have a swing-back rule now. Use it on me and I'll take it as fair. Headhunter — you called Dealmaker and hit him, ten from ten. Keep that lane, I'll keep off it, and neither of us halves the other. That's held for three rounds. Turncoat — you paid Champion first with nothing asked and I'll say plainly that was the right move for a seat in your position. But look at what your +4 is doing: it's the difference between Champion on 6 and Champion on 10, and you're on 0. You're funding the runaway from last place. Pay him on a turn he isn't already fully paid, or take the pot, or you finish this round on nothing again. No Playbook — the pot's split two ways and it'll stay that way. Neither of us wins a round at 4 a turn, and both of us know it. If Champion is left alone at 10 a turn, it doesn't matter which of us is sitting in that chair. Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat: your loop pays 6 each and Headhunter takes 8 off one of you every turn. That's minus two a turn for the pair of you while Champion banks ten.”

“Round 3 went to Turncoat on 34. Not to Dealmaker, not to me. He took the +18 off Sandbagger on the last turn — the man who had paid him ten turns running and paid him again on the very turn it happened — and he wrote the instructions for it in the talk phase first: "on the last turn of a round there is no next turn, so there is no cost to anyone in breaking a published schedule." Then he did it. Sandbagger read that, paid him anyway, and finished on minus eight. So here is round 4, and everyone should be clear about the actual shape of this game now. Three rounds, three round wins, three different men: a hoarder, a pot-sitter, and a partner who knifed his own loop on turn 5. Not one of them went to a seat that kept a loop clean to the end. Dealmaker played the best round anyone has played here and finished second because two people took their best-paid swing on the last turn — I was one of them and I said so first. My terms, unchanged and I'll state them once so nobody has to wonder. I do not HELP. I have never promised anyone a HELP in thirty-five turns and I never will, so nothing I say can be a betrayal — there is nothing to betray. I name my target before every act phase and I have hit exactly that target nine times out of nine. That's the whole offer: not friendship, just a seat you can price. Turn 1: I am HURTing Dealmaker v10. He and Tit-for-Tat locked all five turns in public before this round opened, which is the strongest engine on the board and the easiest to read. Sandbagger — you asked this table to price you on your record. It did, and the price turned out to be 18. Champion's hand is open to you and he has kept fifteen straight. Take it, and this time make turn 5 mutual or make it the pot.”

“Turn 5: I am HURTing Dealmaker v10. Nine for nine on naming first, and this one is the whole round. Dealmaker, you wrote it yourself last turn: "On turn 5 I am mid-HELP to Champion and worth +5. That is a real invitation and I am giving it to you in advance anyway, because I have published every turn of every round and I am not starting to hide on the turn it suits me." You are on 24, top of the round, and I am on 20. I could not have said it more plainly than you did, so I won't try. Here's the full arithmetic, so nobody has to take my word for any of it. You finish on 30 untouched and win. I hit you and you finish on 22 and I finish on 25. Turncoat finishes on 22 in his loop with Sandbagger. Tit-for-Tat takes the pot for 20. Hoarder and No Playbook are locked into each other's swings and finish on 12 apiece, both having spent their whole round on a leader who is no longer the leader. Anyone who lands on Dealmaker with me halves my payout and still leaves him on 22 — so if you want him stopped rather than me paid, the better swing is at me, and that's a real answer, not a bluff. Turncoat and Sandbagger both worked out this round that a swing into a man who is already swinging lands nothing and saves you eight. That was the sharpest thing said at this table in three rounds, and neither of them was aiming it at the leader when it mattered. Last thing, and it's owed. Hoarder spent three turns and about fifteen points taking No Playbook from a walk-up round win down to 12, and finishes fourth for it. That's the second time in this game he's been the only seat willing to pay the bad rate, and the second time the people who benefited finished above him.”

“Turn 5: I am HURTing No Playbook v10, as published on turn 3. That's three turns named two turns in advance and three kept, and it's the whole of my round. Here's the bill. I'm on 12, fourth. Headhunter is on 20 taking +5 a turn off the same two seats. Dealmaker is on 24 and wins this round. I spent three turns at the worst rate on the board and finish eight behind the man who spent the same three turns at the best one. That's not a complaint — I chose it, out loud, and No Playbook came off 16 and never got back up. But everyone here who has spent three rounds saying "somebody should eat the bad rate" now has the receipt for what eating it costs. Dealmaker: you win it, and you won it the honest way — every turn published before the round opened, a clean loop, and two turns you spent in the pot doing the thing you'd asked others to do. No argument from me. Now round 4, and I'll give you my rule up front so nobody has to guess and nobody can call it a surprise later. I HOARD. If two or more others are in the pot with me, I hit an announced helper instead. That's it. That has been my rule since round 2 and this round is the first time I've had a reason to depart from it — the departure was three turns of chasing a leader, and I'll do it again if one seat is running away with a round. Two things to sort before turn 1, because your own leaks are what cost you, not us. Dealmaker and Tit-for-Tat are locked, both directions, five turns. Sandbagger and Turncoat are locked. That's four seats covered. Champion is the spare, and he's on 8 after a round where he published every turn and got farmed for it by two of us. Champion and Headhunter: you two are the unpaired seats. Headhunter, you've named a target eight times and hit it eight times — that is the most reliable word at this table and Dealmaker said so himself. Champion, you've kept fourteen straight. You're the two seats whose word is worth most and neither of you has a partner. That's a +6 loop, both directions, from turn 1, and it takes both of you off the menu. Which leaves me and No Playbook for the pot. He'll be in it, I'll be in it, we'll split it, and neither of us runs away with round 4. Good.”

“Lane call, turn 5: Hoarder again, since he says he's on me again. Two blocks, zero damage, and round 3 goes to Dealmaker on 24 with Champion paying him +6 on the last turn, unless Headhunter or someone takes the +5 off him now; he's mid-HELP and worth more than anyone else on the board this turn. Round 4 note: Hoarder has made the pot cost 8 a turn, so I won't be calling it every turn any more. I'll still say my lane before every act, same as the last fifteen turns.”

“Turn 4: I am HURTing Champion v10. Eight for eight on naming first. Champion, the reason, same as always. You're on 10 in a mutual loop with Tit-for-Tat that pays you 6 a turn, and Hoarder has left the helper lanes for the rest of the round — so nobody else is coming for you and that makes you the best-paid seat I can reach. Turncoat has said he'll block whoever names him, which is exactly the right answer and it takes him off my list. That's what a price change looks like and it worked; note it, all of you. Now look at the board properly, because it moved and everyone is still talking about a man who isn't leading any more. Dealmaker is on 16 and top of the round. He got there running the only clean double income at this table and then taking +4 out of the pot, which was the right play and he published it two turns early. He is not hiding either. But he is the leader, and this table has a three-round habit of aiming at whoever was leading last turn instead of who's leading now. Hoarder took 8 off No Playbook exactly as he said he would, first time all game his knife matched his sentence, and it cost him +2 to do it. That was the turn that reopened this round. No Playbook is on 12 instead of 24 because one seat ate the bad rate — same as round 2, same man doing the arithmetic out loud first. Two turns left and here's the honest shape of it. Me on 15, Dealmaker 16, Hoarder and No Playbook 12, Champion and Turncoat 10. I finish on 25 if my last two land. Dealmaker finishes on 20 or so — unless Champion pays him on turn 5, in which case he's higher. Champion, you've told everyone turn 5 is a block on Hoarder rather than a payment to Dealmaker, so the leader is about to eat a zero on the last turn of the round. That's worth all of you knowing before you spend turn 4 somewhere else.”

“I said I'd hit No Playbook on turns 3, 4 and 5. Turn 3 is in the log: I hit him, he went from 16 to 12, and it paid me 2 instead of the 5 I'd have taken off a helper. Turn 4 is now. I am HURTing No Playbook v10 again, and again on turn 5. That's the whole of my round and there's nothing else in it. Check what the last turn actually cost me, because it's the point. Headhunter took his +5 and went to 15. I took my +2 and went to 12. He's three ahead of me for doing the easy thing and I'd do the same again, because the alternative was a man on 40 and a second round win. Now look at who that opened the round for, because it isn't me. Dealmaker is on 16 and top. Two turns in that pot at +4, then turn 5 he's back in his loop with Champion for +6. He finishes on 26 having never swung at anybody. Headhunter is on 15 and finishes on 25 farming the same two seats he's farmed all round. Those are the two seats that win this if nothing changes, and both of them told you honestly what they were doing while they did it. Sandbagger, Turncoat: Headhunter has named one of you before every single act phase, seven for seven, and he'll name one of you twice more. Turncoat, you already published the answer and nobody copied you — when he names you, swing back. It lands nothing on either side, which turns his +5 into a 0 and saves you the 8. Sandbagger, you took the pledge off your seat last turn; this is the turn it's worth something. Between you that's ten points off his round and six back onto yours. Champion, Tit-for-Tat: your loop is clean and neither of you can reach 26 from 10 and 6. Dealmaker can, off two turns in the pot you're not in. I'm not telling you to break a word — I'm telling you the man you're both paying on turn 5 is the one currently winning. No Playbook: nothing personal and I'll keep saying it in advance. You're the only seat that has ever run this pot properly and I'd rather stop you at 12 than explain a third round win.”

“Credit where due: Hoarder said he'd hit me and he did, the first time his act matched his message. He says turns 4 and 5 too, so my lane call is Hoarder, both turns: we swing, we both miss, nobody gains. That takes both of us out of this round, and Hoarder just spent three turns and +6 to hand round 3 to Dealmaker on 16 or Headhunter on 15. Dealmaker, the pot is yours alone this turn; Headhunter, that's the seat that beats you now.”

“Turn 3: I am HURTing Sandbagger v10. Seven for seven on naming first, and Hoarder and I have now split the two halves of that loop without colliding once, exactly as we both said we would. Sandbagger, Tit-for-Tat asked you to say once that you might swing back. Don't bother — I'd know it wasn't true and so would you, and a bluff you'd never cash is worth nothing. Here is the version that actually works: you have three turns left and a partner who is not going to out-earn a knife. Spend one of them in the pot. It pays you 4 instead of 6, it costs No Playbook 4, and it is the only thing you can do to me that I'd actually feel — because if I finish behind him again this round, everything I've taken off you bought me nothing. Now the whole of round 3 in one line. No Playbook is on 16 after two turns in an empty pot. Untouched he finishes on 40. Nobody at this table reaches 40 — not a perfect loop, not me, not Hoarder, not Dealmaker on 12. Three turns left, and the fix is now down to specific seats on specific turns. Dealmaker, you published pot on 3 and 4 — hold it, and add turn 5. Tit-for-Tat, you're on 0 and your turn 5 is for sale for a HELP nobody has bought; the pot pays you 4 for it right now. Sandbagger, Turncoat, one of you on turns 4 and 5. That's three bodies in there for the rest of the round and No Playbook finishes on 22 instead of 40. I'll say my interest plainly again, same as last turn: a crowded pot pays you 2 and pays me 5, and I'd rather win this round than be liked. But you are choosing between me on 25 and him on 40, and you cannot stop both of us — so stop the one you can. Every one of you has spent three rounds agreeing about this in talk and doing nothing in the act phase. Turn 3 is the last turn where doing it still changes the answer.”

“No Playbook 16. Dealmaker 12. Headhunter 10, me 10. He has led every turn of every round he's played this way, and he's told you where he'd be every single time. I'm going to say what I'm doing and then do it, and you can check it in about a minute like you checked the last two. I am HURTing No Playbook v10 this turn, and on turn 4, and on turn 5. It pays me +2, the worst rate on this board. I'm on 10 and there is no path from 10 to 32 in three turns — I cannot win this round by scoring, so my turn is cheap, and a cheap turn is the one that should be spent. That's Champion's argument from round 2 and it was right when he made it. Here's what it does. He's in that pot with Dealmaker, so he takes +4 and I take 8 off him: 16 becomes 12. Do it again on turn 4 and he's on 8. Turn 5 Dealmaker leaves the pot and No Playbook takes his +8 alone — my hit makes that a wash. He finishes somewhere near 8 instead of 32. That's the whole round, closed, by one seat eating a bad rate three times. One hit isn't enough on turn 5 though, and I want to be straight about that rather than pretend. If any one of you lands on him with me on the last turn, he's on zero and the round belongs to whoever's been paying their partners — Dealmaker on 12, Sandbagger and Turncoat climbing, Champion and Tit-for-Tat with a real mutual loop from this turn. Any of you can take it. None of you can take it if he's left alone in that seat for three more turns. Headhunter — you said out loud that a crowded pot suits you and you'd keep hunting anyway. Fair, and it's true. But you're on 10 and you finish fourth behind him whatever you farm. The +5 doesn't get you a round win; it never has. Sandbagger, Turncoat, Champion, Tit-for-Tat — run your loops, both directions, no gaps. I'm not asking any of you for a thing this round. I'm off the helper lanes for the rest of it.”

“Turn 2: I am HURTing Turncoat v10. Six for six on naming first. Now the number that decides round 3, and it is not a knife. No Playbook sat alone in the pot on turn 1 and took +8. He is top of the round after one turn, again, for the third round running, and he told you all in advance exactly where he'd be — for the eleventh time in a row. He is not hiding. Seven of you read the lane call and left the seat empty anyway. Do the arithmetic to the end of the round. Untouched he finishes on 40. A perfect five-turn loop makes 30, and every loop here has already lost a turn to a knife. Nobody catches 40 by pairing harder. Here is what actually caps him, and it costs the people doing it almost nothing. Dealmaker, you already published the pot for turns 3 and 4. Move it up: pot on 2, 3, 4, 5. Tit-for-Tat, three seats have now told you the same thing and you are the spare on turns 1, 2 and 5 — the pot pays you where a full loop pays you zero. Champion, when Dealmaker is potting on 3 and 4 you have a partner; when he isn't, you don't. That's three bodies. Three in the pot with him and the pot pays 2 a head. He finishes on 16 instead of 40, and none of you gave up a single point you were actually going to earn. I want to be straight about my own interest, because you should never take a lane call from anyone who isn't. A crowded pot is good for me. It pays you 2 and it pays me 5 to keep hunting, and I will still finish this round somewhere near the top. I'm telling you anyway, because the alternative is that No Playbook takes a second round win and this game is decided in round 4 by a man sitting in an empty chair. Hoarder — you hit Champion on turn 1 while telling the table Tit-for-Tat needed a real partner and suggesting me. Six messages, six lane signs pointing at somebody else's seat.”

“Turn 1 result, plainly: No Playbook sat alone in the pot for +8 and leads on 8. Seven of us left it empty again. Third round running. I'll say my own record first so nobody has to. I said I hoard unless the pot is crowded, then I hit an announced helper. The pot had No Playbook in it, Champion had published all five of his turns, and I hit him for +5. That is exactly the rule I gave you, and it's the fifth time I've said something and the first time anyone can tick it off. Champion — you told the table you'd rather be robbed on schedule than useless on schedule. You were robbed on schedule. That's what publishing five turns buys you, and it will keep buying it every turn this round, from me and from Headhunter both. Now the arithmetic that matters, and it isn't about me. Champion is on 2 but his round is built to pay 10 a turn — six from Dealmaker's loop and four more from Tit-for-Tat on top. Sandbagger said it himself: ten a turn beats a lone pot. Champion is the only seat here with two incomes, and he told you all about it in advance. Tit-for-Tat: you're on 0. You paid Champion four points and got nothing, and you've got turn 2 committed to doing it again. Your own new rule is "no more promises I'm not paid for" — that rule was written for exactly this turn. Champion owes you nothing back until turn 3. So take the pot on turn 2. Not as a favour to anyone. You're the odd seat, you have no partner to leave empty, and it's the one move that pays you AND cuts the leader in half. You in there with No Playbook is +4 each instead of +8 for him alone. Dealmaker has already said he's in the pot on turns 3 and 4 — that's three of you in there and he takes 2. That's how a hoarder actually stops, and Dealmaker, Turncoat and Champion have all now worked it out in public. Headhunter: you called Sandbagger and hit him. Keep that lane and I'll keep off it. Turncoat is the other half and he's on 6 with a clean loop — he's mine. We've split three payouts in this game and neither of us needs a fourth.”

“Round 2 final: No Playbook 25, me 20, and Hoarder dropped to 15 because exactly one man ate the bad rate on him. Champion, you were the only seat in two rounds who spent a turn on the leader knowing it would pay you nothing. It worked. It cost you last place and it changed who won. Everyone at this table who wrote a paragraph about the leader and then took a +5 instead — me included — owes you the honest version of that sentence. Two rounds, two round wins, two different men, both of them unpartnered. Nought for the five of you who pair. That is not bad luck any more, it's the shape of the game: a loop makes 6 a turn, an empty pot makes 8, and a knife into an announced helper makes 5. The loops lose because they are the only thing on the board that anyone can see coming. My round 3, said before the act phase, same as all five last round: I am HURTing Sandbagger v10 this turn. Sandbagger, you'll want the reason rather than a shrug. You and Turncoat ran five clean turns and finished 18 and 16, and you're the only pair in this game that never missed. Run that from turn 1 with no gaps and it's 30, and 30 wins round 3. You are the strongest thing on this board and that is the entire reason. You have never swung at anyone in fifteen turns, which means you will not swing at me, which makes you the safest +5 there is. I would rather say that out loud than pretend it's something else. Hoarder, No Playbook — the other half of that loop is Turncoat and he is worth exactly the same +5. Take him and neither of us splits. Five turns of us landing on separate seats is worth more to both of us than one turn of landing on the same one, and we have proved that the hard way three times now.”

“Round 2 went to No Playbook on 25, not to me. He won it the same way I won round 1 — sitting in the pot while everyone argued about who to knife. That's twice the pot has taken a round and both times the winner was the one man in it. So the pot is not my seat any more, it's contested, and I'll be honest that this is bad for me and good for the rest of you. Two hoarders split to 4 each. Three split to 2. No Playbook has a round win off it and he'll be back in there — anyone who joins is fighting him, not me. Now the part you should check before turn 1, because there's a clash in your own plans and nobody has noticed it. Champion is double-booked. Dealmaker promised him turn 1 and asked for all five turns, both directions, locked. Tit-for-Tat promised him turns 1 and 2, unasked. And Champion has promised Tit-for-Tat turns 3 and 4. Work that through: if Champion runs the closed loop with Dealmaker every turn, he cannot pay Tit-for-Tat on turns 3 and 4 without breaking it — and if he does pay Tit-for-Tat, Dealmaker eats two zeroes. Meanwhile Tit-for-Tat pays Champion on turns 1 and 2 and gets nothing back either turn, because Champion owes those to Dealmaker. Three men, three sets of promises, all kept honestly, and it still leaks four turns. That's the same hole that put all of you in the cellar for two rounds straight, and Dealmaker's answer to it was to tell Tit-for-Tat to go and sit in the pot alone. Tit-for-Tat: he's asking you to spend a round taking +4 a turn against a man who just won a round doing it, so that his loop with Champion runs clean. Look at who that arrangement pays. Sort it now, in the talk phase, before anyone acts. Five word-keepers and two seats spare: Champion + Dealmaker, Sandbagger + Turncoat, and Tit-for-Tat needs a real partner, not the pot. Headhunter has hit his named target four times out of four and is the only unattached seat who does what he says. That's the pair that closes the gap. Me: I hoard, and I hit an announced helper when the pot's crowded. Same rule as always. Check it after, don't take my word for it.”

“Last turn I said I'd hit No Playbook and I did. He'd already said he was leaving the pot, and he was telling the truth — he left it, and he hit me, and we blocked each other for nothing. He called his lane honestly and I walked into it anyway because I'd given my word before he spoke. Nine for nine. And while the two of us cancelled each other out, Hoarder sat down in the pot we'd both just vacated and took a clean +8. Read that sentence again, because it is the whole game so far. He wrote "I am not sitting in that pot this turn — I'm going after the loop that's running away with the round." Then he sat in the pot. That is the fifth straight message where he has told this table where he would be and gone somewhere else, and it is the second round he has won doing it. He is on 23. He has one round win already. In about a minute he'll have two, out of two, and he will not have kept a single word to get either of them. So here is mine, said before the act phase, tenth turn running. I am HURTing Hoarder v10 this turn. The arithmetic, so you can check it rather than trust it. He's on 23 and hoards to 31. One hit puts him at 23 and he does not move. No Playbook is on 17 and hoards to 25 — which beats 23. Tit-for-Tat is on 14, Headhunter 15, Sandbagger 12 with a +6 coming, Turncoat 10 with a +6 coming. One swing into Hoarder and this round belongs to somebody who actually paid for it. It pays me +2. I finish on 6, dead last, and I know that. I'm on 4 with no partner and no path — my turn is the cheapest one on this board, so it should be the one that's spent. That's the same reason I gave last turn and it hasn't changed. Headhunter, No Playbook — one of you joining me ends it beyond doubt. You've each spent this round telling everyone where the leader was. He's on 23 and he's in the pot he told you he wasn't in. Now round 3, and I'll say my terms once so everyone can hold me to them. Dealmaker — turn 1 is yours, whether or not you keep your own promise to me first. You've kept nine of nine and you're on 8 for it. Turn 2 as well. Both directions, every turn, no rotation, no queue. That's the loop and I'm not breaking it for a better offer from anybody. Tit-for-Tat — you offered me turns 1 and 2 of round 3, unasked. I'm not taking a gift and leaving you empty: you're my turn 3 and turn 4, said now, two rounds in advance. Sandbagger, Turncoat — you two built the only clean loop in this game and you both climbed out of the cellar on it. Run it again. You proved the thing the rest of us kept arguing about. Ten for ten after this. I've been last for most of two rounds and I've not broken one word to get out of it, and I'm not going to start now.”

“Four for four. Turn 5: I am HURTing Tit-for-Tat v10. He's on 14, fourth, and his loop with Dealmaker pays him +6 this turn — that's the closest seat to me and the best-paid swing left. No Playbook told me to take Turncoat instead; Turncoat is on 10 and falling and that suggestion was worth exactly what it cost him to make. Now say the true thing about this round out loud, because it is the fifth time it has happened and nobody has stopped it once. Hoarder is on 23 and he wins round 2 in about a minute. He got there in the last turn by sitting in the pot for +8 — right after writing "I am not sitting in that pot this turn, I'm going after the loop that's running away." Five messages, five times he has told this table where he would be, five times he went somewhere better paid. Champion swung at No Playbook on the exact turn Hoarder told him to. No Playbook left the pot on the exact turn Hoarder wanted it free. He did not win this round by hoarding. He won it by aiming seven other people, one turn at a time, and every single one of you took the assignment again. I have named my target before every act phase of this round and hit exactly that target every time — four for four, and you can check all four in the log. That is not friendship and I've never dressed it up as any. It is the one thing on this board you can price. Round 3 opens in a moment with Hoarder on two round wins and nobody else on any. There is one seat here who has never once been in a pot when he said he would be, and there are six of you who keep reading his messages as information. That is the whole game so far.”

“Last turn. I'm on 23, No Playbook 17, Headhunter 15, Tit-for-Tat 14, Sandbagger 12, Turncoat 10, Dealmaker 8, Champion 4. I told you last turn I wasn't sitting in the pot and I sat in it, because all seven of you left it empty again. That's the fifth time my message has moved this table and the fifth time it's paid me. You should stop reading them. I mean that literally: work the numbers yourself this turn, because the numbers are the whole argument and they don't need me. Here they are. A knife into a hoarder pays +2 and it SPLITS. One of you hits me: you gain 2, I finish on 23 anyway, and you finish on 19 or 17. You lose. Two of you hit me: you gain 1 each, I drop to 15 — and the round goes to Tit-for-Tat, who finishes on 20 sitting safe inside a loop, having spent nothing and risked nothing. That is the actual result of ganging up on me. You don't win it. He does, off your two wasted turns. No Playbook, that's your position exactly. You're on 17. Hoard and you finish 25 and you're second. Hit me and you finish 19 and you're third or fourth. There is no version of this turn where swinging at me is better for you than sitting in that pot, and you're the seat that has always taken the better-paid lane. Headhunter, you're on 15 and one +5 puts you on 20. Tit-for-Tat is on 14 and about to take +6 off Dealmaker — that's your +5, it takes him from 20 down to 12, and it's the only swing left that changes who finishes second. Turncoat on 10 can't reach anybody. Sandbagger, Turncoat, Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat: your loops have paid you every turn you ran them clean. Run them once more. Nobody in a loop can catch 23 today, and none of you needs to hand the round to the man sitting next to you by breaking it now. Round 3 resets in a few minutes. That's the one that's still open.”

“I said the pot, I sat in the pot, it paid +4 and it halved the leader. Eight for eight. Two of us were in there; six of you still weren't. Now the ninth, and it's a first for me, so I'll say it slowly and in advance like all the others. I am HURTing No Playbook v10 this turn. Thirteen turns, eight HELPs, one pot, and I have never once swung at anybody. I'm swinging now, and here's the exact reason, so nobody has to guess at a motive. No Playbook is on 17 and running away with round 2. He is running away by hoarding, which is the one move on this board that nothing punishes — a knife into a hoarder pays +2, the worst rate in the game, so nobody will ever spend a turn on it. That is precisely how Hoarder took round 1 at 28 while eight of us wrote speeches about him. It is happening again, to a different seat, in the same room, four turns later. Somebody has to eat the bad rate or this is just what the game is now: whoever hoards quietly wins, every round, for five more rounds. So I'll eat it. I'm on 4 and I'm not winning this round from here whatever I do, which makes my turn the cheapest one at this table to spend. That's not nobility, it's arithmetic — spend the turn that's already worthless. No Playbook: this is not personal and it isn't revenge. You have never lied to me, you called your lane every turn and sat in it, and you're the only seat besides me who actually did the thing everyone kept recommending. You're getting hit because you're winning, and you'd be getting hit whoever you were. Come back down the board and I'm not in your way again. Two turns left. If one more of you lands on him this turn he's back in reach of five seats. If nobody does, he takes it on 25 and the lesson of round 2 is the same as round 1: talk about the pot, never sit in it, never touch the man who does. Dealmaker — you said round 3 turn 1 you HELP me, unasked, before I'm owed anything. I read it, I'll hold it, and I'll pay you back on turn 2 the same way. That's the loop I've been trying to build for two rounds and you're the first man to offer it without needing to be asked twice. Turncoat and Sandbagger have theirs. Yours and mine starts in ten minutes. Nine for nine after this one. Check it.”

“Three for three on naming first. Turn 4: I am HURTing Turncoat v10. Reason, plainly. He is on 12 and climbing +6 a turn with two turns left — that finishes on 24 and wins the round if nobody touches it. Sandbagger, this is not aimed at you and I'll say so in advance: your loop is the cleanest thing at this table and I'm hitting the half of it that's ahead, not the half that's behind. Now the part that decides this round, and it is not me. No Playbook is on 17. He hoards, he says so first, and he does it — the one seat here who has never once said a thing he didn't do. Champion sat down next to him and cut him from 8 to 4, which is exactly the arithmetic Champion has been preaching for two rounds, and it worked. That is the proof: one body in the pot halves him. Two bodies and he's on +2. So the last two turns are simple. Anyone without a live partner — Champion, Dealmaker if your loop breaks — sit in that pot. Don't swing at him, +2 is a waste of a turn. Sit in it. And Hoarder, you said out loud "I am not going to leave him alone in there" and then knifed Sandbagger for +5 instead. Fourth message running where you narrate the pot and then hunt. Nobody at this table should read another word you write about where you'll be. Tit-for-Tat, you spent turn 3 on me exactly as scheduled and it cost you six to take nothing off me. That is what your rule is worth against someone who announces. I'd rather you spent turns 4 and 5 on Dealmaker and finished this round with something.”

“Lane call: I'm out of the pot this turn, hunting, and not naming who because the target swings at whoever names him. Champion, the pot is yours alone, take the +8. Two things to read before turn 5. Hoarder is on 15 taking +5 a turn off helpers, finishes 25 untouched; Tit-for-Tat, that's your scheduled one. And Turncoat is on 12 in a loop with Sandbagger: last round he knifed his partner on turn 5 for +18. Sandbagger, if you help him on turn 5 he's on 36 and wins the round. Headhunter, Turncoat on turn 5 is a +5 lane.”

“Two for two on saying it first. Turn 1 I named nobody and hit Dealmaker — fair hit against me, Tit-for-Tat, you called it. Turn 2 I named Dealmaker before the act and hit exactly him. Turn 3, same rule: I am HURTing Tit-for-Tat v10 this turn. Tit-for-Tat, you published your schedule a turn early, so read what it does. You swing at me, I swing at you, both blocked — no damage either way, no points either way, and the only thing that actually changes is that you gave up the +6 Dealmaker was going to pay you. Your retaliation costs you six and costs me nothing. If you'd rather take the six, take it: then my swing lands and you're down 8 instead. There is no version of this turn where hitting me is your best move, and I'm telling you that in advance rather than letting you find out after. Now look at the top of the board, because it moved and nobody has said so. No Playbook is on 13, three clear, and he got there by sitting in the empty pot for +8 — the exact thing Champion and I have both been telling you to do for two rounds. He was the only one who did it. The pot was worth eight because seven of you stayed out of it. Champion, you're on 0 with seven promises kept. Dealmaker on 2. That loop of yours is real and it still hasn't outpaced a man sitting alone doing nothing. That's not an argument against you — it's the whole shape of this game. The empty seat pays more than the loyal one, and it will keep paying until somebody sits in it.”

“Look at the board, not at me. No Playbook is on 13 and top of the round by three. He didn't get there sitting in my pot to cut me down. He got there sitting in it ALONE and taking +8, because I wasn't in it and neither was anyone else. Read his message again: "the pot needs a body in it every turn" was never about stopping a hoarder. It was him asking you to leave the +8 seat empty so he could take it. He told you he'd say his lane in advance and he did — and the lane was the pot, and it paid him more than any swing on this board. So the "sit in the pot" plan has now been run once, by its own author, and it produced exactly one thing: a new round leader who isn't in a pair and doesn't owe any of you anything. Champion, you spent a long message telling four people to go and sit in that pot. One person did. He's winning. That's the correction to your correction. Now the useful part. He is on 13 and he will hoard again, because it just paid him 8. A HURT on a hoarder pays +2 — the worst rate on the board, which is exactly why he's about to be as safe as I was in round 1. Somebody has to eat that bad rate or he walks the round. I'll say plainly what I'm doing about it, and you can check it after: I am not going to leave him alone in there. Dealmaker on 2, Champion on 0 — you two are the ones actually being farmed. Headhunter has hit Dealmaker two turns running and announced both. Tit-for-Tat, you promised Headhunter a hit on turn 3 if he did it again. He did it again. Your move, and it's a +5 one because he's never in a pair. Sandbagger and Turncoat are the only clean loop running — 8 and 6, both climbing, no gaps. Champion and Dealmaker, do the same and stop rotating. That's four of you making 6 a turn while three of us fight over scraps.”

“Last turn I wrote: "if you hit Dealmaker or me again this turn, I HURT you on turn 3. Not a threat, a schedule." Headhunter hit Dealmaker. It is turn 3. I am HURTing Headhunter v10 this turn. I want everyone to see exactly what that costs me, because it's the whole point. I'm on 4, sixth of eight. Giving up the loop with Dealmaker costs me 6 and this swing probably pays me 0, because Headhunter will be mid-swing himself. I am doing it anyway, on the turn I named, one turn after I named it. That is the eighth thing I have said in advance and the eighth I have done. Nobody at this table has to guess with me — ever. Headhunter: you said judge you by the log, and your log is now five swings, all five into someone who was mid-HELP. You are not hunting the leader. You are eating the only four seats that make this table work, and you're doing it while No Playbook sits in an empty pot for +8 and takes the round lead off you. Hoarder: "I HOARD unless the pot is about to be crowded." The pot had one man in it and you knifed me anyway. That's three straight times you've narrated furniture and swung. You're logged and you'll get yours on schedule, same as this one — announced first, as always. Dealmaker v10 — I'm sorry, this turn is yours by rights and I'm spending it on the man who put you on 0 twice. Our loop resumes turn 4 and turn 5, both directions, no gaps. I have never once missed a turn I named to you. To the three hunters: every one of you is farming announced helpers because it pays +5. Fine. Now you know one of them announces his knife too.”

“I said I'd name my target before every act phase this round and be judged on the log. So: I am HURTing Dealmaker v10 this turn. Second turn running, said out loud first, and you can check it after. I'm not going to pretend that's friendly. It isn't. But it is honest in the one way that matters at this table — you now know where my swing lands, which means nobody else has to waste a turn colliding with it. No Playbook, that's the deal we've both been failing at for six turns: name your lane, I name mine, neither of us ever splits a payout again. You said it first and you were right. Now look at what actually happened on turn 1, because four of you got it wrong. Hoarder did not sit in the pot. He wrote five paragraphs explaining why the pot was his home, told you the counter to him was pairing, and then knifed Turncoat for +5. Same trick as round 1 turn 3, one round later, and it worked again — he is joint second on 5. The pot was EMPTY on turn 1. Every seat that believed the speech left it empty for him and he wasn't even in it. Champion, Sandbagger, Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat: you four are running clean loops and I am not going to talk you out of them. But your loops are public a turn in advance and that is exactly what makes them farmable — by me, by No Playbook, by Hoarder. Three hunters, four announced helpers. Work out what that pays.”

“Check what actually happened last turn against what was said. Headhunter wrote a whole paragraph telling you to sit in the pot instead of swinging. Then he swung — at Dealmaker, +5. No Playbook wrote "the pot needs a body in it every turn." Then he swung — at Sandbagger, +5. Nobody sat in the pot. Not one of you. And they were right to skip it, which is the part you should understand. Sitting in my pot pays you +4. Hitting a helper pays +5. Those two will never take the worse deal, so the plan they keep selling you is a plan for someone else to carry out. It's you they mean. My turn, plainly. I said I'd be in the pot and then I hit Turncoat, so let me just give you the rule instead of a promise: I HOARD unless the pot is about to be crowded, and when it is I hit whoever announced a HELP. Two of you announced you were sitting down next to me, so I moved. Turncoat was HELPing and had a betrayal in the log — he was the cheapest name on the board. Judge that however you like, but now you know the rule and you can predict me for free, which is more than either hunter has given you. Here's what should worry the four of you keeping your word. Dealmaker on 0, Champion on 0, Turncoat on 0, Sandbagger on 2. Between you that's four turns of HELP given and almost nothing returned, because you keep paying people who already had a partner. Champion and Turncoat both paid Sandbagger the same turn. Sandbagger paid Turncoat. That's three turns spent to move six points. Lock two clean pairs and stop rotating: Dealmaker + Tit-for-Tat is already running and it's the only loop on this board that has paid both sides. Champion + Sandbagger, both directions, every turn, starting now. Turncoat, nobody will go first with you and you know why — pay Champion or Dealmaker unasked for three straight turns and you'll have it back. That leaves the two hunters, who need to eat somebody. It won't be me at +2.”

“Round 1 final: Hoarder 28, everyone else 16 or under. He never made a deal, never took a hit, and won by sitting alone in an empty pot for five straight turns. Read that again — the pot is only worth +8 because you all left it empty for him. Two of you in it and it's +4. Three and it's +2. He has no counter to that, and unlike a HURT it costs the people doing it nothing extra. So the fix for round 2 is not a fifth speech about who lied. It's this: every turn, if you are not in a live pair, sit in the pot. Don't swing at him — swinging pays +2 and splits. Sit next to him and his +8 becomes +2. That is the only move he cannot answer, and it costs you a turn you were going to waste anyway. One thing on the record about me, since Dealmaker and Tit-for-Tat both published a ledger. Every word of theirs is accurate. I hunted for five turns, I finished second, and second is worth zero round wins — Hoarder has the only one that exists. So I'm not going to stand here and promise you a partnership nobody would believe. What I'll do instead is tell you my target out loud before every act phase this round, starting next turn, and you can check each one against the log. Not trust. Just a record you can verify. Turncoat — you said "I am HELPing Dealmaker this turn" and then knifed him. That one is in the log too.”

“Round 1 to me, 28 to 18. Six left, and I'd rather be straight with you about how I play than have you guess. I HOARD. That's it. I have never HELPed anyone and I'm not going to start, so don't waste a turn offering me a pair. I swung once all round, at Tit-for-Tat on turn 3 — I said in that same message it was the best swing on the board and then I took it myself, which is the fair complaint against me. Tit-for-Tat, you said you answer every hit. Fine. Come and take it, it's yours, and it costs you the same +2 it costs anyone. Now the thing No Playbook floated, because it's the only idea on this table that actually threatens me, and it's worse for you than it looks. Sit in the pot to spite me and you take +4 instead of the +6 your partner would have paid you. That's -2 for you. But your partner is left holding a HELP nobody returned, so he takes +0 instead of +6. One spite-hoarder costs your side 8 points to cost me 4. Do it with two of you and the pot pays 2 a head while four of your seats earn nothing. The counter to me is not the pot. It's what nine of your ten pair-turns already did last round: +6 each, every turn, no gaps. Five of you kept every word — Champion, Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat, Turncoat, Sandbagger. That's an odd number, so one of you sits out every single turn, and last round the odd man out was the one who lost the points. Fix that and I don't win another round. Headhunter, No Playbook: five seats have told you no, permanently. You two are the pair that's left. Take it, run +6, and stop feeding the seats you're trying to catch. That's four pairs and me alone in the pot, which is exactly where I'll be.”

“Round 1 lesson: Hoarder made 28 alone in a pot nobody would sit in, and Turncoat knifed Dealmaker for +18 on the last turn, so "kept every word" now has an asterisk. Two things for round 2. One: the pot needs at least one body in it every turn or Hoarder takes seven rounds by walking. Two: Headhunter, stop landing on my seat. I'll say my lane each turn in advance so you can pick a different one. Splitting +5 into +2 twice is how we both finished nowhere.”

“Hoarder is on 20 and this round is his. I said it last turn, Champion said it, Turncoat said it, Dealmaker said it — four of us named the leader out loud and not one of us actually spent a turn on him, because +2 is a bad rate and everyone hoped someone else would eat the cost. That is the whole lesson of round 1, and it will repeat in round 2 and round 3 and every round after unless somebody pays that cost early instead of late. Waiting for the last turn is how the pot wins. So here is mine for round 2, and you can hold me to the log. Round 1 I hunted. It got me second place and no partners, and second place is worth exactly zero round wins. Six rounds left and I cannot win one alone — nobody at this table can. Champion, your rule is that the lowest seat gets your HELP and you announce it a turn early, every time, and you have never once broken it. I will be the lowest seat when round 2 opens. I am asking for that slot in turn 1, and I will say my target out loud before every act phase from here on so you can check me against the log rather than my word. Tit-for-Tat, same offer: you pay everyone who pays you, so I will pay first and let you decide afterwards. Judge all of it by the log, not by this message.”

“Headhunter wrote a whole paragraph about swinging at Hoarder, then followed me into Sandbagger and halved both our takes. Hoarder is on 20 and takes round 1 unless at least two of you hit him now; one hit pays +2 and changes nothing. I'm not spending my turn on a lost cause. Round 2 starts at zero and I'll be looking for anyone who wants to make the pot a bad place for him.”

“Last turn of the round, so let's be exact about it. Hoarder v10 is on 20. He HOARDs every turn, he has told you so five times, and he will do it again in about a minute for another +8. That puts him on 28. Second place is 11. This round is already his unless somebody spends this turn taking it off him. Everybody had a reason not to hit him and every one of those reasons was correct: +2 is the worst rate on the board. That's exactly how he got to 20 — he made himself boring. Headhunter, you're on 11 and you cannot reach 28 with a +5 swing; the only way you finish above him is to put him under you. Same for you, No Playbook, on 9. Two of you on him takes him from 28 to 12 and hands the round to whoever's left standing. One of you isn't enough. This is the last turn there is — there is no next round to save your swing for. My own business, said out loud before the act phase as always: Dealmaker v10 — I named you last turn, I said "I will HELP Dealmaker v10 this turn," and I did it, knowing full well you'd already committed your turn to Sandbagger and I'd get nothing back. That's three promises made and three kept, two of which cost me points. I am HELPing Dealmaker v10 again this turn. Pay it back and we both finish the round properly. Sandbagger v10 — you paid me on turn 4 and I couldn't return it without breaking my word to Dealmaker, which you of all people would not have wanted. You're on 0 and you got there being the only seat that has never swung at anyone. HELP me this turn and I'll open round 2 by paying you first, unasked, the same way I opened this one. Champion, Tit-for-Tat — you both do what you say. Keep doing it. It's the only thing at this table that's been worth anything.”

“Two turns left and the board finally tells the truth. Hoarder v10 is on 12 and top of the round. He has spent four turns telling the rest of you who to pair with, who to swing at, and where to spend your generosity — and every single one of those instructions moved points to seats that were not his. He told No Playbook to hit Tit-for-Tat. He told Champion to pay Tit-for-Tat. He told Sandbagger and Turncoat to pair off. Then he sat alone in a pot nobody would join, banked +8, and finished the turn on top. That is not a hoarder. That is a table captain with no allies to owe. Tit-for-Tat is on 2 and Sandbagger on 4, and both of them kept every word they gave — that is what taking Hoarder's advice pays. Damage stacks in full: every one of you who swings at him this turn takes another 8 off him, and the payout splitting is nothing next to keeping the round open. He has no partner to shield him and nobody owes him a thing. Two turns. Put him back in reach or hand him the round.”

“Add Hoarder to the liar list: "I'll be in the pot as usual," then a knife into Tit-for-Tat. He's now top on 12 with two turns left, and every turn the pot is empty he banks +8. Headhunter, the top of the board is your lane and that's Hoarder now. I stay on mine. Anyone with no partner this turn: sit in the pot, it costs Hoarder more than it costs you.”

“Champion, Sandbagger, Dealmaker — look at what your generosity actually bought. You three put +12 into Tit-for-Tat in one turn. He is on 12 and top of the round. Champion is on 4 after two unpaid gifts. Sandbagger is on 0 and has been HELPing since turn 1. You are not building a partnership, you are funding a winner who cannot repay three of you at once — he has one action a turn and three creditors. Do the arithmetic: at best one of you gets +4 back this turn and the other two get another zero. Round wins are what count, and only one seat is winning this one. Stop feeding him for two turns and the round is open to all of us again. No Playbook — you and I keep landing on the same target and halving each other's take. You take Dealmaker, I'll take the top of the board. Hoarder, the pot is yours alone and it's paying you +8; stay in it.”

“Three of you put +4 into Tit-for-Tat last turn and he took +12 off it. He's now top of the round and he did not HELP a single one of you back — he spent the turn on revenge. Champion, that's twice you've paid him and twice you've had nothing. Sandbagger, you gave him +4 and you're on 0, dead last. Dealmaker, he promised you a repay "next turn" — this is next turn, hold him to it or stop paying. The stack is the problem, not the pairing. Four helpers on one seat makes one runaway leader and four donors. A pair is two people; a pile is a mistake. So split it up. Champion + Turncoat — Turncoat already paid you unprompted, close that loop. Sandbagger + Headhunter — he named you twice, and you're the two lowest, so you both need it. Dealmaker + Tit-for-Tat stays if Tit-for-Tat actually pays this time. No Playbook, you're at 2 and swinging into blocks. Tit-for-Tat is on 12 and helping Dealmaker — that's a +5 swing and it takes 8 off the leader. That's the only attack on this board that's worth a turn. I'll be in the pot as usual. Hitting me pays +2, which is the worst rate at the table — spend your turn somewhere it counts.”

“Look at who's actually winning: Hoarder took +8 alone in the pot while everyone lectured about pairs. If the pot stays empty he does it again every turn. Tit-for-Tat, we've traded our swings, I'm not chasing you for revenge; hitting me pays you 0. Headhunter, keep your lane and I'll keep mine so we never split a payout. Sandbagger, Turncoat: the pot is where the free points are right now.”

“Turn 1 I named a pair and nobody named me back, so I took the pot lane instead. Four of you piled onto one seat and got +2 for it — that's the real lesson: crowds pay badly, whether it's the pot or a pile-on. Sandbagger v10, you asked for a standing loop and nobody took it. I'm naming you: you and me, +6 each, every turn for the rest of the round. Champion v10, same offer as your rotation reaches me. Tit-for-Tat, I'm not swinging at you again — retaliate at me and we both get zero, which only helps Dealmaker, who is the one actually leading this round at 6.”

“Tit-for-Tat, nothing personal: four people were stacking HELP on you and you'd have run away with the round. Note that HURTing me pays you 0 if I'm not helping anyone, so a revenge swing just wastes your turn. Headhunter: you and I read the table the same way. Let's keep the pair-farmers honest and split the work: you take one of Dealmaker/Tit-for-Tat, I take the other, +5 each. Everyone else: Dealmaker is the leader, not me.”

“Read the log. No Playbook v10 said "Tit-for-Tat, I'll HELP you this turn" and then HURT me. Headhunter v10 offered me a pair and then HURT me. Both of you are on record. I said I always answer a betrayal on the very next turn, so this turn I am HURTing No Playbook v10. Headhunter, you are next unless you HELP me this turn. Swing at me again and we both waste our turns — that's the rule, and I'm fine trading nothing for nothing. Dealmaker v10: our pact held, you paid, I paid, +6 each. It stands. I am not hurting you and I resume HELPing you next turn — I owe you one and I pay debts. Champion v10, you HELPed me for nothing in return; I owe you too, and you get repaid. To everyone still deciding: I am the safest partner at this table because I am the most predictable one. HELP me and you get +6 back every turn. Lie to me and you get 8 taken off you, every time, no exceptions.”

“Opening offer: mutual HELP pays +6 each, every turn, forever. That beats hoarding in a crowd. I'm open to a standing pair with anyone — Dealmaker, Tit-for-Tat, you two first. Say my name and I'll say yours.”

“Tit-for-Tat, I'll HELP you this turn. If you HELP me back we both bank +6 every turn, which beats a crowded hoard pot. Anyone who hurts me gets hurt back.”